DMS Governance Ltd (DMS) is the worldwide leader in fund governance with more than 225 professionals representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding USD330 billion.
DMS delivers high quality Fund Governance, International Tax Compliance, AIFMD, UCITS, MiFID, Banking, Custody, Trust, Corporate and Outsourcing solutions across a diverse range of investment fund structures and strategies.
"We've just had our third anniversary as a management company in Europe. We've been fully authorised as an AIFM and a UCITS management company since 2014 and we've enjoyed core growth in that business, with a good mix of client names and a corresponding increase in AUM," confirms Conor MacGuinness, Director, DMS Investment Management Services (Europe) Limited* (DMS IMS).
DMS Europe is headquartered in Ireland, with additional offices in London and Luxembourg.
Speaking recently to Hedgeweek, Anne Storie, CEO of DMS Governance, said: "The demand for our European range of solutions has exceeded expectations to the degree that we have doubled our footprint in Ireland and Luxembourg. We're listening to our clients, and what the industry is facing in terms of regulation, and we're working to find the right solutions. We have a duty to do so being governance experts."
As well as supporting clients who wish to launch UCITS funds or Alternative Investment Funds, using DMS IMS as the appointed AIFM or UCITS management company, DMS can also provide MiFID/MiFID II services, such as trade execution, verification and settlement, following the acquisition of a MiFID authorised firm last year.
"This provides additional investment expertise to our management company to help us better oversee all the funds that we manage," explains MacGuinness. "We are also able to act as an aggregator and trade with BNY Mellon, ICBC, Goldman Sachs, etc, on behalf of clients and perform various execution services, such as treasury cash management and allocating to money market funds."
Last year DMS Europe secured over 90 new fund mandates. In addition, it has over 100 risk clients to whom it provides a range of risk and regulatory reporting services, including Annex IV reporting under AIFMD, Form PF and increasingly Solvency II reporting.
MacGuinness says that approximately one third of the funds are umbrella funds while the rest are standalone funds where the client wishes to customise the structure, choose their board of directors, fund administrator, etc, and DMS IMS acts as the AIFM or UCITS management company.
By taking care of all the operational, regulatory and compliance demands, as well as helping with distribution, DMS can support fund managers with European funds with a full compliment of services that allows managers to focus singularly on alpha generation.
"The growth of the European management company business is where we've seen the most success over the last 12 months and we expect it to be a key driver in 2017 as well.
"Our team does everything from helping clients to set up their funds in Ireland or Luxembourg, to guiding them through the entire life cycle of the fund. We support them on all of the regulatory compliance issues so that they can focus squarely on managing the fund," says MacGuinness.
"In addition, we offer full independent portfolio risk management. We can take in portfolios from fund administrators plus data from other sources and provide a fully independent risk overview."
On winning this year's award, MacGuinness comments: "DMS are delighted to win this award. It is testament to the strong team we have built and our continued focus on meeting regulatory demands and client needs." n
*DMS Investment Management Services (Europe) Limited is regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland
