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“Sovereignty Means Being Able to Change Course” – A Conversation with Manfred Beckers 

Rethinking cloud, regulation and geopolitical dependencies 

Cloud and AI are key drivers of efficiency, scalability and innovation for financial institutions. At the same time, the dependencies behind these technologies are becoming increasingly relevant – from providers and platforms to infrastructure and legal jurisdictions. For regulated financial institutions, this raises an important question: How can they harness the benefits of technology while keeping their options open as conditions evolve? Manfred Beckers, COO of ACTICO and Segment Head Asset Administration, explores what this means in practice on the “Funds in 15 Minutes” podcast.


Manfred Beckers joins David Eckner on “Funds in 15 Minutes”

Listen to the German Podcast on Spotify      Read the full Interview in English

Also available on: Apple Podcasts | Chartered Investments.
The podcast is recorded in German. For our international audience, we have made the full conversation available as an English transcript. 

In the episode, Manfred Beckers and David Eckner explore the legal and geopolitical dimensions of digital infrastructure, what the US CLOUD Act means for European financial institutions, and how DORA is changing the way organisations approach ICT third-party providers and exit strategies.

 

Key takeaways from the conversation 

Critical dependencies belong on the management agenda

Cloud and AI are part of global technology ecosystems. Technology and commercial considerations therefore sit alongside legal jurisdictions, regulatory requirements and geopolitical developments. For organisations, understanding these interdependencies is becoming an increasingly important part of technology decision-making.

Digital sovereignty goes beyond data location

A European data centre is an important consideration – but it is not the whole picture. The jurisdiction governing a provider and the resulting legal access rights matter too. The US CLOUD Act illustrates why cloud decisions need to consider not only where data is physically stored, but also the provider’s legal jurisdiction and corporate structure. 

Exit strategies need to work in practice

DORA sets binding requirements for managing ICT third-party providers and the associated exit strategies. Documentation alone is not enough: an exit also needs to be viable in practice. Portability is a key part of this – the ability to move applications and data to another operating environment when required.

A question for the boardroom

Could you move critical processes to an alternative environment if circumstances changed? Increasingly, the ability to answer that question is becoming an important part of managing digital resilience. 

Our perspective: Designing for the freedom to change course 

At ACTICO, we do not see digital sovereignty as a choice for or against a particular provider or technology. We see it as an architectural principle. As a technology partner to regulated financial institutions, we help organisations understand and manage critical dependencies and develop architectures that preserve flexibility over the long term. 

This means creating meaningful technology choices where they matter for an organisation’s ability to act. In cloud deployment, for example, we are expanding the options available for selected solutions to include European infrastructure. 

About the speakers 

David Eckner is Managing Director of Opus Prime, a third-party management company (KVG) and subsidiary of Chartered Investment. His areas of expertise include fund structures, securitisation, financial market regulation and tokenised alternative investments. He also serves on the board of the Digital Lending Association, advises specialist committees of BAI and BVK, and lectures at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf, Trier University of Applied Sciences and Tilburg University. He hosts #fundsin15minutes, where he regularly speaks with industry experts about trends shaping the fund industry, tokenisation and digital sovereignty in asset management. 

Manfred Beckers is COO of ACTICO GmbH and Segment Head Asset Administration. ACTICO develops software solutions for regulated financial institutions, spanning compliance, credit management and asset administration. Manfred has worked closely with investment management companies, asset manager and asset servicers for many years. A particular focus of his work is how organisations can embrace new technologies while making deliberate choices about critical dependencies.

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