Northern Trust has gone live with its first hedge fund middle-office services client, a fund launched by New York-based Julius Baer Investment Management.
Northern Trust has gone live with its first hedge fund middle-office services client, a fund launched by New York-based Julius Baer Investment Management. The middle-office services include automated trade matching, derivatives processing, reconciliations and connectivity to multiple prime brokers.
Northern Trust’s hedge fund middle office solution is an extension of its investment operations outsourcing business. The bank says a key piece of the solution is web trade services, a trade-processing innovation that has been available to traditional asset managers as an operations outsourcing component.
‘Our new middle-office solution offers hedge funds the efficiencies of investment operations outsourcing and the potential for seamless integration with Northern Trust’s highly configurable, robust hedge fund administration platform,’ says Jeff Potter, product manager for web trade services. ‘With greater operational efficiency, increased connectivity for trade communications and global administrative support, managers can focus on maximising gains for their investors.’
Northern Trust’s middle-office services for hedge funds aim to facilitate trade communications between the investment manager front office, prime brokers, trade-matching utilities for over-the-counter and exchange-traded securities, and third-party administrators.
The bank is providing Julius Baer Investment Management with hedge fund administration services along with middle- and back-office support through investment operations outsourcing. It says the operational efficiencies gained by linking these businesses together allow Northern Trust to achieve processing and communication efficiencies seen in speed of trade capture, portfolio valuation, reconciliations and reporting.
‘Hedge funds require a combination of speed and risk management from their service providers that is ideally suited to the solutions we have developed,’ says Peter Cherecwich, head of global product and strategy for Northern Trust’s asset servicing business.
‘Web trade services is more than just a technology solution – Northern Trust has the accounting, pricing and service expertise to quickly resolve matching exceptions and reduce trade failures. As investment managers face increasing pressure to manage costs effectively while providing greater returns for investors, we can deliver the scale and infrastructure required to support higher volumes and expanding trading strategies as our clients grow.’
Founded in 1889, Chicago-based Northern Trust is a provider of investment management, asset and fund administration, fiduciary and banking solutions for corporations, institutions and affluent individuals through a network of 85 offices in 18 US states and 13 international locations in North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. At the end of last year, Northern Trust had assets under custody of USD4.1trn and assets under investment management of USD757.2bn.
