Brown Brothers Harriman has confirmed that the bank has appointed Simon Cleary, director of securities markets at SWIFT in London, as SVP and Head of Funds Solutions for Europe. He will report to London-based BBH Partner, Jeffrey R. Holland. At BBH, Cleary will re-join former SWIFT colleague Keith Haberlin.
The Funds Solutions group is aimed not at fund managers but at the institutions which invest in funds.It looks to bring together on a single platform fund execution, custody, compliance, trailer fee administration, and fund messaging that is network-agnostic but adheres to the ISO15022 and ISO20022 standards.
“Together these services provide for a high quality, STP environment in a fragmented market otherwise known for a lack of automation,” explains a BBH spokesman. “By delivering an offering that is both high tech and high touch, BBH addresses matters of operational risk, standardization, convenience, and cost on the supply side of funds, which have inhibited more rapid growth and assimilation among institutional buyers and their intermediaries.”
BBH says the value of the assets serviced off its Funds Solutions platform now exceed $50 billion, and come primarily from banks and funds-of-funds.
As Director of Securities Markets at SWIFT, Cleary was responsible for defining SWIFT’s strategy for the securities business and for developing and managing services to support that strategy. During his seven-year tenure at SWIFT, which he joined from Citigroup, the messaging co-operative increased its penetration of the securities markets considerably. Among the projects Cleary worked on was SWIFTNet Funds, which sought to standardise the exchange of information in the mutual fund industry.
Before Citigroup, Cleary held global custody relationship management, product development, and operations positions at Bank of New York and Chase Manhattan.
“We are pleased to have Simon join BBH, and look forward to building on his industry knowledge in an area that we are adding significant resources,” says Jeff Holland. “BBH’s aim is to provide broad based support services to both fund manufacturers, and distributor banks and to become a recognized leader in this space. Simon’s experience and energy will be a great asset to BBH as we execute our Funds Solutions strategy.”
“I am excited to be joining a firm that is so well respected in the funds servicing space,” adds Cleary. “BBH already has a number of high quality product capabilities in the Fund Solutions area, combined with leading technology and an outstanding level of client service. From such a strong market position, the potential to work with BBH’s top tier client list, and to help these clients with their business goals in a fragmented and challenging funds servicing space represents a truly outstanding opportunity.”