Middle office: Operations

Operations work suits agents because it’s high-volume and rule-bound, and teams already measure it. Agents investigate breaks and watch shared inboxes, and the operations team directs their work. Reconciliation is the usual place to start.

Main use cases

Reconciling positions and investigating breaks

A scheduled agent pulls files from prime brokers, administrators, exchanges, and custodians, or on-chain balances, and code matches the positions, trades, and cash. For each break, the agent checks how similar breaks were resolved before, opens a case, and drafts the follow-up.

Handing shared-inbox triage to an agent

The operations team has an agent watch its shared mailboxes. The agent sorts and routes incoming requests, answers routine internal ones from systems of record, and escalates anything close to its deadline to the team.

Checking reports, notices, and confirms against the firm’s records

Claude compares broker and administrator statements against internal numbers and cites each discrepancy by page. It turns notices, confirms, and portfolio-company reporting packs into structured terms, checks them against the firm’s records, and flags mismatches for the team.

Briefing the team before market open

By the time the desk arrives, Claude has drafted a one-page brief covering overnight breaks, fails, margin calls, escalations, and the follow-up for each break.

Outcome: The operations team works through the breaks that need judgment, while agents handle routine work like inbox triage and statement checks.