HSBC won the coveted fund administrator of the year award in the Global Investor Investment Excellence awards 2020 as Northern Trust secured the private equity prize and BNY Mellon came out top in real estate fund administration. Blackrock was once again rated the top transition manager and RBC Treasury & Investor Services won the transfer agent award.

Fund Administrator of the Year: HSBC Markets and Securities Services

HSBC Markets and Securities Services believes the COVID-19 situation has underlined the importance of automation and straight through processing (STP) to provide the optimum levels of control and scalability to support client demands in this “new normal” environment. These are key attributes of the firm’s cutting-edge solution for assisting clients with the following services:

• Rebalancing investment allocations;
• Allocation of cashflows;
• Order management of clients’ investments into funds, or cashflow notifications to segregated mandate funds.

Traditionally the calculation and placement of orders has been performed by clients using manual processes with associated risk which do not provide scalability.  HSBC now offers clients flexibility with multiple different rebalancing and cash allocation methodologies to support their specific requirements.

Shareholder exposure is managed by maintaining the minimum levels of cash within funds by utilising cashflows in the most efficient method and ensuring the minimum number of investment orders are required.

HSBC’s fund administration services integrates with third parties such as policy administration systems and asset managers providing an end-to-end service which removes the need for client input unless there is a discretionary decision required.

For clients wanting an order management solution only, HSBC supports multiple order instructions methods (SWIFT, sFTP, AIM, etc.) from clients to meet their bespoke front office requirements. HSBC undertakes order validation, enrichment, FX execution, routing, management, confirmation validation, settlement and postings to custodians and fund administrators in a fully automated STP environment. The method in which orders are routed will be determined by HSBC to use the most efficient and appropriate method per client. This includes being able to route orders via SWIFT to Euroclear (FundSettle and EMX), Calastone and where required alternative means to trade funds which are not on mainstream platforms.

Client supplied thresholds and tolerances are pre-agreed, embedding processing controls that can support client specific requirements, removing key person dependencies on their side. If no tolerances or thresholds are breached, then the end-to-end model is fully automated with no user intervention required. This also includes the ability to notify interested parties or send settlement instructions to third parties.

Private Equity Fund Administrator of the Year: Northern Trust

Northern Trust offers a complete range of solutions to help clients stay aligned with changing markets. The service can help clients navigate complex alternative investment strategies, assist them in compliance with new regulations and meet reporting requirements. Northern Trust’s support gives the flexibility to improve transparency and increase efficiency across an array of alternative asset types.

Northern Trust made in February a key hire, with the appointment of Sara Gilbert to spearhead business development for its alternatives asset servicing business in Europe. This appointment underscored Northern Trust’s continuing strategic focus on alternatives, where it now supports over $1.4 trillion in assets on behalf of global asset managers and asset owners.

In her role as a senior executive for alternatives business development, Gilbert will be responsible for further accelerating Northern Trust’s asset servicing solutions for multi-class strategies including private equity, private debt, real estate, infrastructure and hedge funds.

Northern Trust announced in December it had been selected by Nordic investment manager Storebrand Asset Management AS (Storebrand) as asset servicing provider to its AIF and UCITS funds domiciled in Luxembourg.

The bank provides global custody, fund administration, transfer agency, depositary, and company secretarial services for the Storebrand funds in Luxembourg.

Northern Trust will also service a range of alternative asset classes, including private equity and infrastructure assets, by supporting the launch of a Luxembourg reserved alternative investment fund where Storebrand Asset Management AS is acting as the advisor.

The banking group launched in September 2019 a range of new client dashboards for Omnium®, its middle- and back-office technology platform for alternative fund administration.

Designed to provide clients with greater transparency into workflows and metrics critical to efficient fund management, the web-based dashboards exemplify Northern Trust’s commitment to innovative solutions that support the world’s leading alternative investment managers.

“With our new, web-based client dashboards, alternative investment managers will have real-time access to the data they need, in a flexible and customizable manner to optimise their businesses in today’s investing environment,” said Peter Sanchez, head of Alternative Fund and Omnium Business Services at Northern Trust.

Real Estate Fund Administrator of the Year: BNY Mellon

BNY Mellon offers a comprehensive solution set to support private real estate funds and REITs across a range of fund types.

The service delivers operational excellence, improve transparency and the ability for the US group to align itself as a strategic partner for real estate funds, enabling clients to focus on their investment strategies.

Its services include:

* Necessary support for property management oversight and joint venture oversight

* Customised portfolio management reviews, including variance analysis and property attribution

* Fund accounting, operations administration and financial statement preparation

* Investor servicing including investor transaction activity and reporting.

BNY Mellon was appointed in August 2020 by Deka Immobilien to provide global fund administration coordination and oversight for its Special Purpose Vehicles.

Much of Deka’s €40 billion in real estate assets is invested globally via Special Purpose Vehicles (SPVs). BNY Mellon’s role is to gradually coordinate accounting data from the SPVs around the world in which Deka funds invest, review the data, translate it into the required accounting standards (for example, IFRS) and provide it to Deka Immobilien for its NAV calculations.

The data is collected through BNY Mellon’s Property Management Interface (PMI), a web-based application that enables local accountants across the globe to provide data in a standardised format and automated way.

Burkhard Dallosch, COO of Deka Immobilien Investment GmbH, said: “We were immensely impressed by the commitment and knowledge of the BNY Mellon team as well as with their technology, which significantly automates the data gathering process and enhances the oversight of our real estate investment.”

Dallosch added: “This cooperation further contributes to the standardization and comparability of data in the real estate industry as other organisations are also using the expertise of BNY Mellon. The fund administration of Deka Immobilien has become more efficient and will be able to continue its growth.”

Transition Manager of the Year: BlackRock

BlackRock has been helping clients shift allocations and implement new investment strategies since 1995. Its goal is to manage transitions cost-effectively and with minimal disruption to portfolios through a full suite of transition services ranging from comprehensive cost analysis to advisory services and interim asset management, to full fiduciary transition service management.

BlackRock handled many hundreds of transitions globally in 2019 and focused on improving client service in three distinct ways:

• Redefining the transition manager role: Due to increasingly complex events, and greater regulatory burden, the traditional transition manager role has become too complex for one single individual. Consequently, BlackRock decided to split the role into two: Transition Project Manager and Transition Portfolio Manager. Clients benefit from having best-of-breed professionals working on their portfolio at each stage; a transition project manager, an expert on operational / process risks and a transition portfolio manager, an expert on managing the portfolio and investment risks.

• Responding to clients’ needs for business transformation: 2019 saw Local Government Pension Scheme (‘LGPS’) consolidation accelerate. Whilst the pooling process reduces cost, it introduces complexity and operational risk. Following on from client education workshops and white papers delivered to LGPS community, BlackRock has been at the forefront of implementing these transitions in 2019.

• ESG: The dominant transition management theme BlackRock observed in 2019 was implementation of ESG factors to client portfolios. The Transition Management team played an active role in educating and assisting clients on how to make that move, by delivering end-to-end analysis, guidance and support to clients implementing these strategies.

Transfer Agent of the Year: RBC Investor & Treasury Services

RBC I&TS’ integrated offering has allowed it to maintain its position as an industry leader, recognised both by its peers and clients, in the provision of transfer agency services.  The key aspects of RBC I&TS’ service that set it apart include:

A global reach to support the distribution of clients’ funds in over 110 countries with extensive connectivity and long-established relationships with over 17,000 distributors to effect high levels of automated trade processing.

Prioritising the evolution of the digital investor experience as a key strategic pillar of the current and future transfer agency offering, including the efficient investor onboarding and day-to-day customer support via multilingual call centres in Europe and Asia.

Sharing deep expertise of the transfer agency service and thought leadership with clients which has been developed over decades of meeting the complex needs of sophisticated global asset managers across multiple product types and jurisdictions.

A commitment towards continuous evolution of the service evidenced by a significant investment in technology, product and service capabilities over recent years. This investment has funded Agile Labs in Luxembourg and Toronto to develop state of the art data and information exchange capabilities and customised data solutions to meet the unique needs of clients, providing them with the data they require across their businesses.

Maintaining a client-centric approach at the heart of the service. Having been long recognised for the quality of its client service, RBC I&TS has strengthened this reputation through establishing and building a collaborative partnership with clients and effectively engaging them to provide input towards defining the improvements and enhancements of the service.

Built in consultation with clients, the proprietary digital eco-system, RBC One, delivers dedicated distribution related applications and Advanced Programming Interfaces to streamline operational processes, provide access to the real time data to manage and oversee their transfer agency service.

Working closely with clients to create scalable operating models that minimise operational risk, deliver a high quality service to investors and effectively respond to growing complexities of the regulatory environment.