Tim Gokey is the Chief Executive Officer of Broadridge Financial Solutions, a worldwide leader in the financial technology industry with more than $5 billion in annual revenues. Broadridge Financial Solutions provides the essential infrastructure that enables better financial lives by powering investing, corporate governance, and communications. Broadridge provides solutions that are technology-driven and driven business transformation for financial institutions such as banks, broker-dealers, asset and wealth managers, and public businesses.
Broadridge’s infrastructure acts as a global communications hub, enabling corporate governance by connecting tens of millions of individual and institutional investors to thousands of public businesses and mutual funds all over the world. The everyday trading of more than $9 trillion USD worth of equities, fixed income, and other securities around the world is supported by their technological and operational platforms. Broadridge is included in the S&P 500® Index and is a certified Great Place to Work®. The company has over 14,000 employees working in 21 different locations.
In this interview, Tim Gokey discusses his plans for India, current trends in the fintech industry, and the long-term objectives of the business as follows:
1. What are Broadridge’s long-term goals for the company’s operations in India?
Broadridge is a worldwide fintech company, and its center in India is an integral part of our operations. At this location, we develop innovative, market-leading solutions by leveraging critical next-generation technologies and data. These solutions assist clients in driving growth, enhancing efficiency, and enhancing the quality of financial services. Our operations in India, which are located out of Hyderabad and Bangalore, have been helping to run the engineering and technology functions for all of Broadridge’s products for more than 20 years. In addition, they have been hosting 24×7 managed services for customers all over the world. Broadridge India plays an important part in helping us approach all of the challenges and opportunities relating to our products, engineering, and technology. Importantly, our team based in India is also a central innovation center for Broadridge. They are at the forefront of our work with emerging technologies like digital ledgers, cloud computing, and artificial intelligence. Because of our centers in Hyderabad and Bangalore, we have the ability to tap into the pool of technical talent that exists in India, establish product knowledge, and experiment with new technologies.
2. What are some of the current developments in technology that are going to have an impact on the financial industry?
Because of its privileged location at the intersection of the equity, fixed income, and fund markets, Broadridge is in a position to offer us exclusive data as well as unique insights into the most important patterns influencing financial markets. Every single day, our systems clear and settle more than $9 trillion worth of trades on behalf of buy-side and sell-side companies located all over the world.
On the front of communications, Broadridge is at the center of the corporate governance network, connecting hundreds of banks and wealth managers, thousands of public companies, tens of thousands of funds, more than one hundred million individual investors, and 750 million different equity positions.
The continued democratization of investing, the growing significance of environmental, social, and governance factors among investors and regulators, the digitization of financial services, and the mutualization of non-differentiating costs among our clients are the most significant trends we see occurring in the world today.
Both the capabilities of service providers and the expectations of customers have shifted as a result of the surge of technological innovation that has occurred over the past 20 years. Customers are expecting the same level of access and instant service from their financial service providers as digital innovation spreads throughout society. We are assisting our clients in addressing these trends and meeting the ever-increasing demands of their customers by providing them with assistance.
3. What are some examples of technological advancements that have been made in India’s financial technology sector recently?
Knowledge and experience join together to form the foundation for innovation. What sets us apart from other companies is the fact that in order to provide our clients with innovative solutions, we collaborate with some of the most knowledgeable and seasoned professionals in the field of finance as well as some of the most talented programmers, developers, and technologists from India and all over the globe.
Broadridge has taken advantage of its team in India to develop artificial intelligence solutions that bring greater liquidity to corporate bond trading (LTX), and the company has also made significant investments in intelligent automation by way of robotic process automation (RPA), artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), intelligent document processing (IDP), and natural language processing (NLP) in order to scale its business process outsourcing (BPO) operations.
The expansion of open application programming interfaces is yet another development that is becoming increasingly significant. An ecosystem is able to develop around a foundational central platform when open application programming interfaces are used. At Broadridge, we are developing all of our new solutions using a strategy that prioritizes APIs. This provides our internal development teams as well as our clients with the ability to develop solutions in a manner that is very agile.
Finally, in order to develop a business strategy that is both more flexible and more agile, Broadridge India is focusing on cloud-native solutions.
4. Now that ESG is starting to acquire a foothold in India, what are some of the short-term priorities that Broadridge is concentrating on?
The idea that there is a direct connection between employee engagement, client satisfaction, and the creation of shareholder value is referred to as the Service-Profit Chain. We have always held the belief that there is such a relationship. Not only do we implement this concept within our company’s internal policies and procedures, but we also do so within our communities and for our most treasured business partners. This commitment to sustainability is a fundamental value for Broadridge that is not something that has been added on but rather something that has been built in.
By way of the Broadridge Foundation, our company participates in a number of charitable endeavors, including the development of community-oriented action plans, the provision of contribution matching, and the funding of charitable causes. Our long-standing partnerships with community organizations, like the Mamidipudi Venkatarangaiya Foundation, which is located in India, provide financial assistance and educational opportunities to children in India who have been forced to work as laborers. In addition, we give money to the Sri Vidhyas Centre in India, which is a school for children with both physical and mental disabilities who come from a variety of social and economic circumstances. The school teaches the children the skills they need to lead productive lives.
We are proud of the fact that we are actively seeking out possibilities for economic growth that, at the same time, are compatible with doing good for the environment. The manner in which we assist customers presents the greatest possibility for us to cut back on production of greenhouse gases. Investor correspondence make up the majority of our business. By making substantial investments over the course of two decades, we were able to cut down on the use of paper and transportation costs by increasing the level of digitization to over 80 percent and continuing to grow.
In addition to this, we have developed an ESG analyzer tool for the purpose of assisting our customers in performing benchmarking, gaining insight into their ESG programs, and supporting strategies regarding disclosures. With the assistance of the ESG Analyser, businesses are able to easily view all of their ESG metrics within a single dashboard and compare their data side-by-side with that of their peers. This assists in directing communications with investors and other stakeholders, as well as internal reporting regarding sustainability.
5. Would you kindly elucidate on Broadridge’s commitment to sustainable practices and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG)?
Concerning the environment, we are dedicated to assisting our customers in lowering their emissions while simultaneously working to reduce the amount of energy we use and the amount of trash we produce. Furthermore, we are in the process of formulating a strategy that will allow us to achieve net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by the year 2050.
Regarding the objectives of the Sustainable Development objectives (SDG), we have determined that there are four primary SDGs in which we hope to make the most significant contributions. These include achieving quality education, decent work and economic growth, lowering inequality, and responsible consumption and production.
We believe that in order to provide exceptional service and value to our customers and other stakeholders, it is necessary for us to cultivate and grow exceptional talent. This is a fundamental component of the service-profit chain. Our dedication to fostering strong governance practices in order to establish a culture of integrity, long-term sustainable development, and long-term shareholder value is another fundamental aspect of our organization. Because we adhere to these foundational principles, we are able to cultivate an inclusive and diverse workforce comprised of the most skilled associates in our sector.
As a result of the efforts that we have put forth, Broadridge has been recognized as one of the World’s Most Admired Companies in Financial Data Services by FORTUNE Magazine, as a Great Place to Work® in 14 countries, including India, and as the Best Place to Work for LGBTQ Equality by the Human Rights Campaign Foundation. These accolades serve as a testament to the success that we have achieved.
