Clearstream – FNZ
Clearstream partnered with wealth management platform FNZ in April this year to launch a business analytics solution for the UK and European asset management industry.
Through use of the solution, asset managers gained access to global and regional intelligence to analyse market trends and behaviour to improve decision making around fund distribution.
The two companies will also support asset managers with their European fund distribution operations, tapping Clearstream’s fund dealing and custody solution, and FNZ’s wealth management platform.
Investment distribution information is currently fragmented and there is very little connectivity across the industry, FNZ said in a statement, meaning asset managers need to seek information from wherever they distribute funds.
HedgeServ – AccessFintech
Last November, fund administrator HedgeServ partnered with widely-commended fintech company AccessFintech which operates Synergy – a data and workflow collaboration network.
To provide an improved client experience, HedgeServ began utilising real-time settlement data that also offers efficiencies in preventing and resolving settlement fails across the entire counterparty ecosystem.
Through a customisable suite of trader and factor-based risk analytics, HedgeServe enables fund managers to better understand the drivers of their performance and portfolio risk.
By using Synergy’s data access, HedgeServ has been able to scale and provide clients with insights while enhancing controls and customer service.
In addition, HedgeServ will be provided with quicker access to settlement data which will enable faster and independent exception investigation and resolution, which will in turn contribute to the reduction of overall fails.
Northern Trust – Fenergo
Northern Trust took another step in its digital journey in May this year, by digitising its private capital funds onboarding process through a tie-up with software provider Fenergo.
Forming part of Northern Trust’s digital innovation programme to support private capital fund managers and their investors, the functionality supports the bank in reducing risk and managing compliance through the onboarding process. Anti-money laundering (AML), know your customer (KYC) and associated compliance processes were all digitised as part of the agreement.
Through the digital portal, investors are able to access, upload and review all of their relevant data in a single source of record. This aims to accelerate the lifecycle processes by reducing the manual document flow and provide a more secure channel for sensitive data.
Ultimus Fund Solutions – FundGuard
Two organisations which already feature in other categories within our shortlist this year, Ultimus and FundGuard partnered in April this year on a NAV contingency solution.
The NAV solution allowed Ultimus to offer clients additional services to calculate real time contingent NAVs for their registered funds. Clients can also utilise the solution for shadow NAV monitoring as an oversight to the normal daily NAV calculation process.
Speaking at the time, Ultimus CEO, Gary Tenkman, said “This FundGuard solution…allows us to offer clients the option of NAV oversight solution and the ability to further mitigate risks. We are also evaluating other services from FundGuard we can leverage to provide to clients.”
Bill Tomko, EVP, head of fund servicing at Ultimus, added: “Business Continuity Planning is a critical component of our over-all service offering to our clients. Three years ago, we migrated to a multi-region cloud-based server architecture with real-time replication between regions. The FundGuard solution allows us to provide our clients who want the additional daily oversight and capabilities of an independent NAV contingency system.”