Front, Middle and Back Office Explained

Abstract

So far, the discussion in this book has been a fairly high-level overview of technological concepts in the financial services industry. Now, in order to contextualise the issue and really dig into discussing the benefits of managing and implementing technology, we will focus on what have traditionally been the three basic divisions of a financial services company and how technology plays a role in the way each of these areas functions. The terms front, middle and back office have traditionally been used to describe how assets are managed from end to end within the financial services community. Traditionally because, these days, in the age of outsourcing and `best-of-breed' suppliers, the front, middle and back offices may in fact all belong to different organisations.