Data Integration Challenges for Asian Asset Owners

“Fragmented data across multiple sources quickly becomes a constraint on decision-making, risk management, and overall efficiency. Firms are increasingly recognizing that creating a trusted, connected data environment is fundamental to achieving a clear view across the entire portfolio."

- Yen Leng Ong, Head of Southeast Asia, Northern Trust Singapore

According to the study, Asian asset owners report significantly higher data integration challenges than their global peers, underscoring the complexity of managing information across multiple sources, platforms, providers, and asset classes. Integration of data across different sources is cited by 76% of Asian respondents, compared with 57% globally, making it the region’s most pronounced data challenge and one of its clearest points of differentiation from the global sample.

This gap suggests that Asian asset owners may be operating in particularly fragmented data environments, where the proliferation of systems and technology tools has created new forms of operational complexity. Timeliness of data is also a more significant challenge in Asia, cited by 48% of respondents versus 41% globally.

Together, these findings point to a broader issue: Asian asset owners need more connected and accessible data that can support investment decisions across portfolios that increasingly combine local Asian markets with investments in North America and Europe, which often operate on different reporting and valuation schedules. The challenge is further amplified by the global nature of many Asian portfolios, with investment teams relying on information from managers and service providers operating across multiple time zones, making it more difficult to maintain a consistent picture of portfolio exposures and liquidity positions.

Technology investment is rising, but integration determines its value

“Many large asset owners across Asia have invested significantly in technology over the past decade, but owning technology and effectively using it are two different things. Organizations often find themselves operating multiple systems, data sources, and platforms that were acquired to solve specific problems at different points in time. The challenge is bringing all of that together into a single, coherent operating model.”

- Yen Leng Ong, Head of Southeast Asia, Northern Trust Singapore

Despite these challenges, Asian asset owners appear eager to invest in technology, with higher planned spending across several areas that support analytics, reporting, diligence, and oversight when compared with their global peers. Portfolio analytics tools are a clear area of focus, with 60% of Asian asset owners planning to spend more, compared with 51% globally.

This heightened focus on analytics may reflect the growing complexity of portfolios that include larger allocations to private markets, infrastructure, real estate, and international investments, all of which require different datasets, valuation methodologies, and reporting processes. Planned spending is also elevated in data warehouse development, with 44% of Asian respondents planning to spend more versus 35% globally. Investment diligence technology is another priority, with 60% planning to spend more versus 55% globally. Spending intentions are also higher for compliance and regulatory reporting, with 60% of Asian asset owners planning to spend more versus 46% globally.

These planned investments indicate that Asian asset owners are actively seeking tools that can help strengthen decision-making, reporting, diligence, and risk oversight. However, the data also suggests a potential tension: as asset owners add more technology to their operating environment, the need to integrate data across those tools becomes increasingly important.

Without a clear data strategy and strong data management practices, expanding the technology stack can create additional fragmentation, making it harder for asset owners to use their tools to their fullest extent and connect data across the portfolio and operating lifecycle. The opportunity, therefore, is not simply to add more technology, but to create a connected operating environment that can aggregate information across multiple providers, markets, and asset classes into a single portfolio view.

AI adoption raises the stakes for data readiness

“Many asset owners in Asia are approaching AI pragmatically. The focus is less on the technology itself and more on how it can strengthen decision-making, automate operational processes, and unlock value from increasingly complex data sets. As adoption accelerates, strong data foundations will become the key differentiator between experimentation and meaningful outcomes."

- Yen Leng Ong, Head of Southeast Asia, Northern Trust Singapore

The importance of data integration becomes even more apparent when viewed through the lens of AI adoption. Asian asset owners are ahead of the global average in the use of AI tools, creating both an opportunity and a greater need for strong underlying data foundations. Eighty percent of Asian respondents say they are deploying AI internally through tools such as Microsoft Copilot or ChatGPT, compared with 65% globally.

This elevated level of adoption suggests that asset owners in the region are already experimenting with AI-enabled productivity, research, and workflow applications. For many institutions, however, AI initiatives need to draw on information sourced from multiple custodians, managers, and regional markets, increasing the importance of data consistency and governance.

As AI deployment expands, the importance of data quality, accessibility, and integration also increases. General AI tools can support internal productivity, but more customized and investment-specific AI use cases require data that is structured, connected, and aligned to the organization’s investment operating model. If data remains fragmented across systems or inconsistent across sources, AI tools may struggle to produce outputs that are reliable, explainable, or relevant to portfolio decision-making.

In this context, data integration becomes a prerequisite for more sophisticated AI adoption. Asian asset owners may be moving quickly on AI, but the long-term value of these initiatives will depend on whether they can first build a stronger and more connected data foundation.

Service providers can help bring structure to complex data environments

"As Asian asset owners expand into private markets and more complex multi-asset portfolios, service providers are playing a different role than they did a decade ago. Clients are looking for strategic partners that can help simplify operational complexity, connect disparate data sources, and provide scalable support without requiring continual expansion of internal teams. Increasingly, the objective is to combine local market understanding with global expertise, allowing asset owners to focus internal resources on investment decisions while leveraging external partners for scale, efficiency, and data management."

- Yen Leng Ong, Head of Southeast Asia, Northern Trust Singapore

As asset owners work through these challenges, many are looking to service providers for support in managing the complexity of data and technology, particularly in areas that can help create more integrated and usable data environments. When asked how service providers could help them better manage data and technology, 36% of Asian respondents cited data warehouse solutions, compared with 18% globally.

This 18-percentage-point gap reinforces the importance of data infrastructure as a regional priority and suggests that many asset owners see external support as part of the solution. Asian respondents are also more likely than global peers to seek more or better real-time self-service reporting, at 32% versus 25% globally.

These findings point to a demand for solutions that do more than store information. Asset owners are seeking capabilities that help them access, interpret, and act on data more effectively. Service providers can play an important role by helping asset owners bring structure to fragmented data environments, rationalize data flows, and establish clearer frameworks for reporting and analytics.

This support can be especially valuable for asset owners managing portfolios across several markets and time zones, where investment, operational, and reporting data may originate from numerous internal and external sources. In these environments, the ability to create a more unified and accessible data ecosystem can help improve both operational efficiency and investment oversight.

Building a connected data foundation to improve portfolio visibility

“Some asset owners may view their asset servicers as another data source to integrate into the big picture, but the right partners can be a strategic data consultant, not just the originators of more data. Northern Trust has worked with dozens of asset owners globally to design thoughtful data foundations from the ground up, from middle office outsourcing operations to back-office operations, for more than two decades. Our teams have deep experience aiding institutions through technical consultative approaches in building their data management solutions to leverage a best-of-breed technology stack.”

- Yen Leng Ong, Head of Southeast Asia, Northern Trust Singapore