Deutsche Börse’s Investment Management Solutions division sees opportunities in helping the buy side replace legacy systems as asset managers look to create a competitive edge through their infrastructure to improve investor outcomes.

Deutsche Börse’s Investment Management Solutions (IMS) includes software solutions, ESG data and research and the index business with SimCorp and ISS STOXX. Christian Kromann has been member of the executive board at Deutsche Börse and responsible for the division since the beginning of 2025.

Prior to his current role, Kromann was chief executive of Deutsche Börse subsidiary, SimCorp, where he had worked since 2019. Deutsche Börse acquired Dutch technology provider SimCorp in 2023. Martin Jetter, then chairman of the supervisory board of Deutsche Börse said in a statement at the time of Kromann’s appointment that he was an international leader who had been pivotal in the growth of SimCorp as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) champion.

Investment Management Solutions focuses on providing services to the buy side. The business forms more than half, 55%,  of Deutsche Börse Group’s buy-side revenues according to group’s presentation on its investor day in 2025.

Kromann told Markets Media that the buy-side value proposition from Deutsche Börse Group spans more than just Investment Management Solutions, but it is anchored there.

“Having spent a big part of my career on the buy side, that has come with some deep understanding of the opportunities and challenges of that market segment,” Kromann added. “I guess Deutsche Börse bought Simcorp to get that knowledge.”

In addition to his buy-side knowledge, Kromann argued that his time at Simcorp will prove useful in meeting the big opportunity of adding technology to the group’s lineup and in his experience in running a global business.

The strategy for the division is a continuation of the SaaS strategy of Kromann’s predecessor, Stephan Leithner, who became chief executive of Deutsche Börse.  An overlay of AI will be added with more cross-pollination across the group, which Kormann believes is a differentiator.

“There are still many clients that have legacy infrastructure and platforms, with their eyeballs split across multiple systems,” he added. “That is a sweet spot for Investment Management Solutions and Simcorp to continue to grow.”

Simcorp has around 800 clients and Kromann said approximately 40% are platform clients.

“Choosing a platform is a big decision, but once you’re on the platform it’s a lot easier to take another capability,” added Kromann, “That is what we have seen over the last two years.”

Clients are adding other Deutsche  Börse capabilities such as 360t for global FX, or collateral management or post-trade solutions.

Innovation in asset management

Fund managers are prioritizing operational excellence, process transformation and partnerships as the next frontier of innovation, according to a survey from Citi Investor Services and CREATE-Research.

The survey, Upping the Innovation Game in the Asset Management Industry, found that firms cannot compete on performance alone and want to create a competitive edge through their infrastructure to improve investor outcomes.

The majority of asset managers, 59%, view innovation as as an overall priority, but the report said the scope is moving beyond new products to operational process and organizational transformation due to fee pressure and rising complexity since the 2008 global financial crisis.

In addition, the survey said outsourcing is now evolving into partnerships at scale. Nearly half, 44%, of asset managers view collaboration with third parties as a means to build scale, enhance capabilities, and share risk by combining unique capabilities. Asset managers also view partnerships as an enabler to accelerate innovation and achieve operational alpha.

There are other firms providing technology to the buy side, including some asset managers. Kromann believes clients want fewer strategic partners.

“We see this as a positive impact as once you have built a relationship, people ask  about what else you have got,” he said. “We are quite firm on the fact that we are an independent infrastructure provider, which means that we work with relevant partners for each of our platforms.”

Artificial intelligence

For example, in April this year SimCorp said in a statement that it was launching Agent Launchpad, an agentic AI ecosystem that allows investment managers to employ agents from SimCorp and curated partners securely and easily within the platform. The agents support key investment workflows such as portfolio management, corporate actions, risk analysis, and operational support. In addition, Agent Launchpad allows clients to build their own agents, with controlled access to data from SimCorp One and approved third‑party providers.

A recent global study by SimCorp found that nearly three quarters, 70%, of buy-side firms are successfully employing AI, up from just 10% in 2025.

Kromann said Deutsche Börse Group is heavily investing in AI for its own internal purposes and the technology will certainly improve how it consumes data. The division has announced new products  that make it easier to connect the group’s data into clients’ platforms and to give clients access to a library of capabilities.

“I think there are opportunities to help our clients generate more revenue,” Kromann added. “It’s our job as a platform provider to make sure that they can connect to the biggest pool of knowledge in a secure and controlled manner.”

In April this year Deutsche Börse Group also led a $14m Series A funding round in Performativ, a Danish company that provides a single cloud-native platform for the wealth management industry. Performativ uses embedded AI agents to automate manual workflows and consolidates portfolio management, performance and attribution analysis, risk analytics, compliance, reporting, and multi-custodian data aggregation.

“The wealth of family offices has grown quite substantially and we  wanted a solution that could supplement Simcorp without overlap,” added Kromann. ”Simcorp sits solidly in the institutional wealth space.”

The  Investment Management Solutions division is also focussed on using technology to make workflows in private markets more efficient.

Kromann said: “We want to be the investment book of record for clients and provide a total portfolio view across asset classes, and that has been Simcorp’s bread and butter for almost a decade.”

The Citi Investor Services and CREATE-Research report said: “Despite progress in AI and automation, digital transformation remains a long-term journey, with 57% expecting it to take more than five years as asset managers progress towards a digital future.”

Challenges include data reliability and explainability issues arising from self-learning systems.

Index business

Deutsche Börse Group has also made investments to expand its index business. In April this year Deutsche Börse Group co-invested with private markets asset manager 7RIDGE in U.S.-based MerQube.

Since launching in 2019, MerQube has specialized in designing and calculating a broad range of strategies, from sell-side indices for complex strategies, which serve as the underlying product for index derivatives and structured products. Deutsche Börse Group said MerQube’s focus on customized complex indices, its strong presence in the Americas, and its cloud-native SaaS index and self-indexing platforms make it highly complementary to Deutsche Börse Group’s established index business STOXX, part of ISS STOXX.

Kromann said the demand for customization, flexibility, and speed-to-market in index-linked investing has been accelerating and the investment adds to the total value proposition of the STOXX business.

During this year Investment Management Services aims to take market share globally and make a “massive push” on AI.

“We were quite excited about some of the steps we took in America last year, and we want to see that trend continue,” added Kromann.