Quintillion Limited is a European-based affiliate of U.S. Bancorp Fund Services, a global alternative administrator with assets under administration of USD117bn. Over the last 12 months, Quintillion has seen its AuA increase from USD18bn to USD25bn.
According to CEO Joan Kehoe (pictured), whilst Quintillion has always had great people and great technology, “the one thing we were missing as a private business was balance sheet. Our acquisition by U.S. Bancorp cured that problem!”
The service model at Quintillion is to use smart technology to build out transparency and reporting for its clients combined with a strong team of people. “We deliver what we say we’ll deliver in a timely and accurate manner. Fundamentally that’s what managers are looking for from their fund administrator,” states Kehoe.
Being able to rely on a stronger balance sheet, in tandem with offering a robust service model, is bearing fruit. According to Kehoe, a big chunk of its asset inflows – some 80 per cent – have come from winning conversion mandates over the last 18 months.
“As larger administrators continue to invest heavily in technology, they are finding it difficult to deal with the demands of greater transparency. This is because they have to manage legacy systems. When we came in to the industry in 2006 we had the advantage of building the business using new technology,” says Kehoe. This has made it easier for Quintillion to adapt to the changing regulatory and transparency demands that managers face today.
Moreover, Quintillion doesn’t rely on an outsource model. By using technology more efficiently and hiring smart people, it gives them the opportunity to add value in terms of interacting with and servicing the manager.
“We don’t have layers of people. Our relationship managers are our operations managers, which means that each client has direct access to the team that is supporting their business. That helps to further differentiate us from our competitors,” suggests Kehoe.
Today, U.S. Bancorp Fund Services is the 11th largest administrator in terms of worldwide AUA. And it’s pushing hard to break in to the Top 10.
“We continue to focus on evolving our solution set for clients. That has meant continuing to develop a depositary lite and full depositary service under AIFMD. In the past year, we’ve focused on our regulatory reporting capabilities. In addition, we are working on building out our middle office services,” says Ken Somerville, Head of Business Development. The ability to offer depositary services is further made possible by the fact that Quintillion is now able to avail of U.S. Bancorp’s banking license.
Other solutions being considered, says Somerville, include applying for an AIFM license, establishing a fund platform, and applying for a regulatory license in Luxembourg.
“The resources and depth of talent that we’ve been able to rely on at U.S. Bancorp has been phenomenal. We aim to complete our depositary and middle office service offering this year,” states Somerville. He adds that the reason for winning more mandates is that Quintillion offers managers the best of both worlds.
“We have the strength of balance sheet to act as a strong counterparty to managers, yet we still provide a high-touch service as a specialist hedge fund administrator,” confirms Somerville.
