Penson Worldwide, the Texas-based outsourced clearing agent with a London operation, says it has taken on an additional seven clients in the UK in the last twelve months. They include Hichens Investment Management, Durlacher and Samsung Securities. Penson aims its offering at broker/dealers, private client asset managers, high net-worth investors, hedge funds, wealth managers and proprietary volume trading firms.
Separately, Penson has re-packaged its execution, clearing, custody and settlement services in the UK and Irish markets as the “Penson Bureau.”
“The Penson Bureau makes categorising global securities services into fixed offerings of Model A or Model B clearing, custody and settlement a thing-of-the-past,” explains Sharron Davey, head of sales and marketing, Penson. “Instead, Penson asks each client what they want and then builds a unique solution from our Bureau of products to meet their specific requirements.”
Davey, who joined Penson in March 2003, says the last twelve months have seen “phenomenal market traction” at Penson. “We have signed, secured and successfully delivered our Bureau services to seven new correspondents,” she says. “Penson is going from strength to strength. We have a ‘can do’ mentality and we think outside the box. And most importantly, we deliver on time, to budget, meeting the terms of the Service Level Agreement we put in place for every client, every time.”
London-based Hichens Investment Management – a specialist in managing portfolios for private individuals, their family trusts, charities and smaller pension funds – appointed Penson recently. “As a young company with ambitious growth plans, we needed a partner to provide us with a flexible solution to our custody requirements that would continue to support us as we grow,” says John Howard Smith, managing director, Hichens Investment Management. “Our clients are of utmost importance to us and we wanted a niche outsourcing provider who shares our beliefs and on whom we can depend. Penson continues to work closely with us to achieve our goals.” Hichens is part of Sanlam Financial Services, the UK-based subsidiary of Sanlam, the South African financial services group.
UK market makers Durlacher have also chosen Penson for Model A clearing, custody, settlement and execution services to support its operations. Penson also won the business of a second UK-registered Market Maker, Samsung Securities. Samsung was self-clearing and now uses the Penson Bureau Model A services, including foreign settlement, corporate actions, cash and stock reconciliations, and payments.
“Over the past 18-months, there has been a number of very large outsourcing deals made in the market,” says Jay Proffitt, Deputy CEO, Penson. “What we are now seeing is their inability to deliver. The continued and steady growth of Penson’s client base works hand-in-hand with our proven ability to deliver flexible, outsourced global securities services, hosted trading systems and wealth management solutions. Our approach offers a refreshing alternative for financial institutions to move to a variable cost structure and capacity, in anticipation of their own accelerated growth.”