The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation ( BNY Mellon ) has announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Archer , with the financial institution aiming to augment its offering. By merging Archer’s capabilities and BNY’s broader footprint and industry knowledge, the financial institution intends to provide fully integrated, end-to-end retail-managed account solutions across its platform.

The decision to acquire Archer can be attributed to the capabilities of managed accounts, which currently represent one of the fastest-growing investment vehicles in the asset management industry. Focusing on serving the asset and wealth management industry, Archer offers comprehensive middle- and back-office solutions that aim to address the managed account needs of institutional, private wealth, and retail investors. The firm’s cloud-based platform supports clients in scaling distribution, simplifying operations, launching additional investment products, and delivering tailored outcomes to a broader market. BNY’s acquisition of Archer Integrating Archer’s managed account solutions, capabilities, and professional servicing team is set to allow BNY to augment its enterprise platform to support retail-managed accounts.

Also, besides optimising the financial institution’s existing asset servicing features for managed accounts, Archer intends to equip BNY Investments and BNY Pershing’s Wove wealth platform for advisors with scaled distribution of model portfolios and access to the company’s multi-custodial network. When commenting on the announcement, representatives from Archer mentioned that asset and wealth managers focus on developing multi-asset solutions across a variety of products, together with direct indexing and tax-optimised portfolios. Through this, they intend to meet the needs, demands, and requirements of their distribution partners and investors. By being included in the BNY platform, Archer’s knowledge, capabilities, and scale are set to be utilised across all of BNY to support clients in driving long-term growth for their businesses. Furthermore, the transaction between BNY and Archer, which follows the financial institution's partnership with the CBA, is projected to close in the fourth quarter of 2024, with the agreement being subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.

As per the information detailed in the official press release, the financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed by the two organisations. Additionally, the transaction’s financial impact is not expected to be material to the financial institution’s earnings and its previously communicated outlook for capital returns. Source: Link .