Capita Financial Administrators Ireland (CFAI) Limited, part of the CapitaFinancial Group has become the first of three Irish transfer agents (TA) to join the Central Facility for Funds (CFF), Clearstreams post tradeservices for investment funds.
Some of the funds for which CFAI are the Transfer Agent have been migratedto CFF on 18 February. PFPC International Ltd and State Street International Ireland will follow suit in the coming weeks.
CFF provides delivery versus payment (DVP) settlement services based onsynchronous exchange of cash and securities between fund distributors andtransfer agents. Capita Financial Administrators Ireland is the 15th member to join CFF since its launch in March 2007.
“We are very pleased to welcome on board the first transfer agents from Ireland, a major domicile in Europe for funds distributed cross border. This demonstrates CFFs attractiveness for investment funds, regardless of their domicile as CFF offers them one single settlement platform, accelerates and simplifies post-trade operational processes and reduces operational risks,” says Philippe Seyll, head of Clearstreams investment Funds business.
Clearstream designed CFF as an answer to growing market demand in Europeand in Luxembourg, Europes largest market for international investment funds with over 200 billion in assets under management.
Although the industry has grown 80% since 2005, its post trade area is still characterised by high fragmentation, little standardization and thus operational risk.
According to a study by Deloitte, a consultancy, the cross border investment funds industry could save 30% of processing costs and gain over 300 million by streamlining trading, settlement and custody of cross border mutual funds distribution.