State Street says UK pensions and life assurance provider Aviva has appointed the bank as transfer agent to its Luxembourg funds range. The American bank says it is “one of the first” instances in which transfer agency will be shared between a fund manufacturer-distributor and a fund administrator.
“We chose State Street following a rigorous selection exercise,” explains William Gilson, Managing Director, Aviva Fund Services. “We were looking for a new transfer agency system to support our existing Aviva funds range and as we look to expand in Europe, we needed a robust, functionally strong system. State Street’s automated technology and highly flexible service models allowed us to retain processes where we believe we can add value, whilst allowing us to outsource others. These factors, along with their local market expertise and global commitment to the transfer agency business, were key differentiators for us in our decision to appoint State Street. We chose State Street following a rigorous selection exercise assisted by the management consultants, CSTIM Ltd.”
Aviva Fund Services will utilise the iFAST TA platform, which is integrated with an image and workflow management solution called AWD, and supported by a management information application and connections to investor and advisor e-commerce tools. State Street says that iFAST is a multi-lingual, multi-currency shareholder recordkeeping system. All technologies are provided by the IFDS joint-venture between State Street and DST Systems.
“We are delighted to be working with Aviva Fund Services to support them as they advance their European fund range,” explains Tim Caverly, executive vice president of State Streeti Luxembourg. “We have leveraged the combined experience and technological expertise of International Financial Data Services (IFDS) and State Street to provide a scaleable and flexible range of services to the European asset management community that is now second to none.”
Aviva Fund Services provides fund administration and transfer agency services to Luxembourg domiciled investment funds authorised in 16 countries and with assets of €1.9 billion. It is the Luxembourg-domiciled investment fund of the Aviva Group, with 27 sub-funds ranging from money market and bond funds to international, regional and single country equity funds.