The Challenge of OTC Derivatives for (Luxembourg) Fund Service Providers

Derivatives are increasingly used to improve the performance in the fund industry. With the convergence of traditional and alternative investments, this trend is getting even stronger. Additionally, the local Luxembourg new SIF legislation (heavy PDF article in HedgeWeek) is further opening the door for more derivatives investment.

Aside from listed derivatives (options / futures), the ability to deliver services around OTC derivatives have emerged as a differentiating factor for Fund Service Providers always eager to attract new clients or more funds from their clients.

A growing part of the Fund Service Providers offer a range of services around OTC derivatives in Luxembourg, from handling custody and fund accounting to collateral management or independent valuation. There is room for more, despite a few hurdles to overcome.

Those hurdles are familiar challenges for the Luxembourg Funds Industry: People and Systems. Finding the profiles with, at the same time, OTC derivatives skills and in-depth knowledge of the Fund industry is even more challenging due to the product complexity which has nothing common with traditional instruments. They require systems able to capture trades, handle reconciliations, allow reporting per strategy or specific functionalities such as pricing.

From a technology point of view, the emergence of FpML as a standard for OTC derivatives should improve STP handling among Fund Administrations. Coming for the Asset Management Industry, those new systems and standards will have a significant impact on the existing IT infrastructures of Fund Service Providers. A new gap to bridge between the Fund Administrators and Asset Managers capabilities…

The growth of OTC derivatives has also driven the development of emerging services such as risk monitoring and advanced support to build structured product or trade execution services.

Luxembourg fund service providers shall keep a close eye on this market which from now on.

Yoann Jagoury, CapFields

Citigroup's acquisition of Bisys strengthens its hand in the lucrative fund-services business

CitiGroup makes a big step forward with their Global Transaction Services group in acquiring Bisys, an Investment Services provider with $815 billion in assets under administration (see also Bloomberg comments).

As the sources say: "With this acquisition, Citi will become a top-three player in transfer agency, fund administration and accounting for U.S. mutual funds." and "In hedge funds area the acquisition positions Citi to compete against top custodians Bank of New York Mellon Corp., State Street Corp. and JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services."

This means a lot of system migrations, primarily for fund accounting. Since CitiGroup is using MultiFonds, IGEFI will be busy helping CitiGroup to manage the absorption of Bisys assets on its own IT platform.

Hedge Fund Demand Feeds Advances in Accounting Software

Here is an overview of fund accounting systems that can handle hedge funds (it is a little outdated, since it was written in 2004). However, the list is not exhausting, since, for example, IGEFIs MultiFonds Fund Accounting system is missing, and it does have a hedge fund module that can handle the requried functionality.

Windige Hypothekenkredite: Milliardenfonds vor dem Kollaps

Einmal mehr wird darüber berichtet (hier ein Spiegel-Artikel), dass ein bzw. hier zwei Hedge-Fonds vor dem Kollaps stehen. Diesmal scheint die Lage schon recht ernst zu sein...das erinnert mich doch sehr an den 1994 gegründeten Long Term Capital Management, der 1998 fast zum Zusammenbruch des weltweiten Finanzsystems geführt hätte.

Innovation Awards

Financial-i has identified the winners for 2006 in several categories, defined by an impressive number of analysts and consulters. Amongst the categories is "The most innovative fund administration and accounting solution". The winner is: SunGard, and they are referring to...InvestOne (not V3 or GP3)! You may want to have a look into my other post here (in German), where I have reflected on Sungards strategy in Germany.

Interesting sidemark: The company to watch was identified to be IGEFI. What does its CEO Bertil Rouveure focus on as the differentiation product feature is his note there ? "However, its outstanding feature is the ability to comprehensively service both mutual fund and hedge fund requirements. "

Other memorable awards are:

The most innovative order management solution: Charles River.f Company to watch: LatentZero

The most innovative securities services provider in Europe: BNP Paribas. Company to watch: RBC Dexia Investor Services

The most innovative reference data solution: Asset Control. Company to watch: Capco

You can find the awards in detail as a PDF here.