DMS Governance (DMS) is the worldwide leader in fund governance representing leading investment funds with assets under management exceeding USD350 billion.
DMS excels in delivering high-quality Fund Governance, Risk and Compliance services across a diverse range of investment fund structures and strategies.
As well as supporting clients who wish to launch UCITS funds or Alternative Investment Funds, using DMS Investment Management Services (Europe) Limited (DMS IMS) as the appointed AIFM or UCITS management company, DMS can also provide MiFID services, such as trade execution, verification and settlement through its MiFID firm, DMS Market Access. This is a huge value-add that a lot of DMS clients are taking advantage of.
“We are currently the only third-party management company with a MiFID entity in Ireland,” confirms David Morrissey, Executive Director, DMS IMS. He says that MiFID II has been a huge driver of growth for DMS Governance over the last 12 months. “The fact that we have a fully operational investment manager, authorised under MiFID, which meets the requirements of the MiFID II Regulation, is proving beneficial to our clients, particularly for managers who are concerned with Brexit. It has helped us in securing some significant mandates.
“Non-European managers face a challenge over whether to add internal resources to their UK office, which might only be a satellite office of the parent company, or whether to look for an external outsourced partner. The latter has very much played to our advantage.”
“We are also looking to add certainty to UK managers in respect of Brexit by allowing them to avail of a European-based MiFID entity, which would not cause them any issues in relation to European funds. That is something that we are discussing presently with a number of UK-based fund managers,” explains Morrissey.
Morrissey estimates that close to 60 to 70 per cent of the mandates DMS Governance are entertaining are from institutional fund groups who are looking for a fund-wide solution by availing of a ManCo: “A few years ago, we were having discussions with managers looking for single fund solutions, now we are talking to managers who have fund ranges that require a solution in terms of marketing in Europe.”
The DMS brand is well known and highly regarded in the international marketplace.
“That helps us to stand out from a lot of domestic management companies in the Irish market.
“Secondly, most of the mandates we won in the early stages were mandates being awarded by investors. The benefit we were able to demonstrate to them was that we were truly independent and that we built our management company from the ground up, along the lines of an investment manager.
“We have our own, highly experienced, risk, legal and compliance teams supporting the European ManCo and MiFID firm and that substance and infrastructure sets us apart from others in the marketplace. From day one, that team has been providing investment management oversight to clients. The team includes experienced traders who speak the same language as the portfolio managers we work with,” explains Morrissey.
On winning this year’s award, he concludes: “We are delighted to receive this award from Hedgeweek which serves to recognise our commitment to delivering high-quality and tailored services to the global fund management community.”
