Overview

Operations sections, teams or departments today have a very varied role in an organization. Standard tasks and functions associated with the clearing, settlement, administration and support of trading, banking and investment activity form the core activities of these teams. However, within banks and brokers in many cases this traditional role has been expanded to encompass elements of revenue generation, third-party administration services and a wide range of client-related services.

Of course, some organizations have the provision of these type of services as their core business. Custodians, clearing houses, fund administrators and central securities depositories, for instance, are organizations that develop and deliver services and generate their income from this activity rather than trading and investment.

Because there is great diversity in the role of the Operations function, in a particular organization this role must be understood if the resource and relationships that it has are to be managed successfully.

Operations teams are both part of a larger structure and will also have structures of their own. In simple generic terms the structure in a bank or broker could be as shown in Figures 1.1 or 1.2.

Figure 1.1: Structure of a bank or broker: 1

Figure 1.2: Structure of a bank or broker: 2

However, a bank is likely to be structured along business and/or product lines so that the structure may look more like Figure 1.3.

Figure 1.3: Structure of a bank along business and/or product lines

If the organization was a fund management company the structure might...