State Street has opened a new office for its continental European transfer agency operations in a newly opened building within the State Street Financial Center Europe at 49 avenue J.F. Kennedy in Luxembourg’s Kirchberg business district.
Luxembourg’s Minister for Finance and Treasury, Luc Frieden, and Peter Terpeluk Jr., the American Ambassador to Luxembourg, spoke at the opening ceremonies today. Tim Caverly, executive vice president of State Street’s investor services business in Continental Europe and Essex-based Charlie Eppinger, chief executive officer of International Financial Data Services (IFDS), the UK transfer agency joint venture between State Street and DST Systems, were also there.
“As one of the world’s largest investment fund markets, and one of Europe’s largest cross-border investment centres, Luxembourg’s importance as a global financial centre continues to grow,” said Caverly. “This new facility at State Street Financial Center Europe will house our Continental European shareholder services team in a single location, which will allow us to provide complete shareholder support services across multiple investment fund products and countries, and in multiple languages and currencies.”
The transfer agency services State Street will supply from Luxembourg include shareholder record-keeping, dividend distribution, corporate actions, settlement and registration, and call centres to handle shareholder and distributor enquiries. State Street says it will also provide workflow management, internet dealing and information systems, and online information and analytics.
The iFAST shareholder record-keeping system developed by DST is at the heart of State Street’s transfer agency product. It is a multi-lingual, multi-currency platform designed to meet the local and global market servicing requirements of non-US domiciled retail and institutional mutual funds. It is web-enabled, and includes automated workflow distribution features, with real-time access in remote, full-service or shared environments for both fund distributors and fund managers.
“The European fund market is changing at a staggering pace,” says Eppinger. “In order for European fund managers to remain competitive, they must offer highly developed technology to their clients, while controlling internal costs as they focus on their core competencies. More and more, fund companies seek to outsource shareholder servicing operations which have expanded to include workflow management, internet trading and information systems, and online information analytics.”
State Street and DST have had a transfer agency partnership in the US through BFDS since 1973. State Street employs 400 people in Luxembourg.