DST Systems, Inc. is an American provider of advisory, technology and operations outsourcing to the financial and healthcare industries, with more than 13,000 employees worldwide. DST was founded in February 1969 as Data·Sys·Tance, a subsidiary of Kansas City Southern Industries (KCSI) and is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri.
DST provides business services in two main areas:
- Financial Service Solutions: alternatives, analytics, banking, broker-dealer, communications, compliance, distribution, funds, insurance, wealth management, process management and retirement
- Healthcare: health plans, accountable care organizations and pharmacy benefit management organizations (PBMs).
DST has operations in Australia, Canada, China, Germany, India, Ireland, Thailand, United Kingdom and United States.
Financial Services
DST provides financial service solutions through the following lines of business:
- DST Brokerage Solutions
- DST Distribution Solutions
- DST Fund, Advisor, and Investor Solutions
- DST Retirement Solutions
- DST Asset Management (provided through ALPS - see "Expansion & Partnerships", 2011)
Healthcare
DST Healthcare supports the following areas:
- Pharmacy Solutions - healthcare management solutions to support health plans with government sponsored programs, clinical and quality management, specialty drug management, rebate and network solutions
- Health Outcomes Optimization - help health plans identify and manage risk and optimize clinical outcomes
- Healthcare Administration
History
DST was founded in the 1960s as a subsidiary of Kansas City Southern Industries (KCSI) to track movements on their railroad. KCSI also owned a mutual fund management company and leveraged technology to automate the administration of mutual funds, creating the industry's first online shareholder accounting system.
To handle the growing processing and data storage demands seen in the 1980s, DST built several data centers, including one called Winchester that was built in 1985, which was one of the most sophisticated such centers in the United States at the time.
In the 1990s, DST was spun off as an independent entity from KCSI and began trading on the NYSE in 1995 as NYSE:Â DST.
In 1990, DST first released the Automated Work Distributor (AWD), a business process management product that has been widely adopted by banks, insurance companies, healthcare companies, brokerages and mutual fund companies looking for a paperless environment.
In 1989, DST acquired a 50% interest in Argus Health Systems, at the time focused on pharmacy benefit administration. On March 31, 2009, DST acquired the remaining equity interest of Argus Health.
In 2005 and 2006, DST acquired CSC's Health Plan Solutions group and Amisys Synertech, Inc, allowing DST to provide claims administration, software applications and business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions. This became the newly established DST Health Solutions, a sister company to Argus Health.
In 1991, DST created a wholly owned subsidiary eventually known as DST Customer Communications (formerly DST Output) to handle the design, printing, sorting, mailing and electronic presentment of the voluminous output of its product management systems.
In July 2016, DST sold their North American Customer Communications business to Broadridge Financial Solutions.
Expansion, Partnerships & Investments
Since 1983, DST has offered many services through substantial joint venture enterprises with State Street Corporation. DST and State Street joint venture activities now include significant international operations.
In 1992, DST formed International Financial Data Systems (IFDS), UK, as a joint venture with State Street Corporation. The UK venture later expanded to locations in Germany and Ireland to provide financial service recordkeeping services for its clients.
In 2001, IFDS combined with International Financial Data Systems (Canada) Ltd.
In 2008, Bluedoor Technologies, a provider of software solutions for participant accounting for the superannuation markets in Australia, was acquired.[13] DST Retirement Solutions was formally established that year.
In 2011, UK-based Lateral Group was acquired to create what is now called DST Applied Analytics. That same year, DST Brokerage Solutions and DST Market Services were established. Also acquired in 2011 was ALPS Holdings, Inc. (ALPS), a Denver-based provider of servicing and asset gathering solutions to the asset management industry. ALPS began in 1991 and became the first service providers of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) beginning in 1995. In 2007, ALPS expanded their capabilities to asset management, specializing in satellite and alternative investment strategies.
DST acquired New York-based kasina LLC in January 2015. kasina is a strategic advisory firm to the asset management industry and provides business analytics, consulting and research to asset managers. DST kasina is now part of DST Distribution Services.
In July 2015, DST acquired Wealth Management Systems Inc. (WMSI), a leading provider of technology-based rollover services in the retirement industry offering wealth management solutions. WMSI is now part of DST Retirement Solutions.
February 24, 2016, DST completed an acquisition of alternative fund service provider Kaufman Rossin Fund Services (KRFS). KRFS is a full-service provider of specialized administration services to the global financial community and has expertise in the hedge fund business. KRFS is part of the asset servicing division of ALPS.
March 27, 2017, DST to acquire remaining interest in Joint Ventures, Boston Financial Data Services, Inc. (BFDS) and International Financial Data Services Limited ("IFDS U.K."), from State Street Corporation.
May 7, 2017, DST Systems reports new $300 MLN share repurchase program.
External links
- Official website