GlobeOp Financial Services is launching its GoOTC package, previously only available as part of the fund services group’s integrated middle- and back-office service, as a standalone outsou
GlobeOp Financial Services is launching its GoOTC package, previously only available as part of the fund services group’s integrated middle- and back-office service, as a standalone outsourced package for over-the-counter derivative trade processing.
‘Hedge funds and institutional investors are increasingly finding that their derivatives processing systems, many of which are based on Excel spreadsheets, are reaching capacity or are too cumbersome to be effective,’ says Ron Tannenbaum, GlobeOp’s head of sales and marketing.
‘Managers of hedge funds – and mutual funds established under the European Ucits III legislation – looking to preserve or increase returns are often unable to enter the OTC derivatives market quickly because they lack an efficient in-house processing platform. Our GoOTC service provides a highly automated ‘plug and play’ middle-back office solution for valuations, reconciliations, collateral management and payments.
‘It’s an example of our history of technological innovation and adaptability in meeting client needs. GlobeOp now values 61 distinct OTC derivatives each day. We process over 1,300 OTC derivatives trades daily and, against ISDA statistics, approximately 3.8 per cent of the global daily OTC derivative trading volume.’
According to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, over the past year the global derivatives market grew at the fastest pace in at least nine years. In 2006, the total amount of over-the-counter contracts rose 39.5 percent to USD415trn, the largest increase since the BIS began compiling data.
Tannenbaum says the scope of derivative instruments valued by GoOTC is also a timely response to the European Union’s Ucits III directive, which allows retail funds to invest in OTC derivative instruments subject to accurate, verifiable and independent daily valuation.
GlobeOp provides automated, integrated middle- and back-office, administration and risk reporting services to hedge fund and asset managers, including banks, insurance companies, pension funds and proprietary traders. The firm employs 1,500 people at its headquarters in London and New York as well as offices in George Town, Cayman Islands, Harrison, New York and Hartford, Connecticut, and Mumbai in India.
