Research in a Viral World: Where Pandemic Meets Innovation

Research provision post the pandemic is moving up close and personal. While the global demand for sell-side research has been unprecedented: 2021 could paint a quite different picture as the total research spend for 2020 is finally totted up. With asset managers increasingly under pressure to perform, conflicting budgetary demands, the increasing use of alternative data and need to reduce overall operational spend is likely to impact who gets paid and by how much. The pandemic has triggered a switch which will have a profound impact on how research is produced, distributed, and consumed.

The question is how much this will move the dial on research provision moving from bulge brackets to smaller specialists and alternative providers — possibly representing Unbundling Mark II for the industry, but for vastly different reasons.

The historical need to see “the whites of their eyes” is being replaced by the need for quantitative evidence on the viability of an investment. As research as a product evolves to meet these challenges — the type of data required and where the data is sourced will also evolve — ensuring research as a service in a post-pandemic world will be a world away from what we know today.

The report has been compiled by Rebecca Healey and Charlotte Decuyper , Liquidnet Regulatory Consultants