DMS Governance: Best Offshore Regulatory & Compliance Firm – Regulation is changing rapidly across all jurisdictions and as hedge fund managers look to capitalise on increasing institutional investor interest, they are reaching out for the global support to facilitate this. As well as ensuring that they adhere fully to the current rules they must also be well primed for any future amendments.
“Clients are no longer looking for single jurisdictional support from DMS and to that end, we are focusing keenly on providing global support to our clients,” comments Matthew Brown, Managing Director, DMS Governance.
Present in multiple financial centres across the globe, DMS is well placed to assist clients in this manner, Brown notes, “We’re seeing increased regulatory and compliance demand from all regulators, globally and as investment managers look to launch multiple products, they’re looking to us to help to meet the regulatory challenges they’re facing and to provide them with consistency in an ever-changing environment.
It’s not just about adhering to current regulation and legislation, it’s about being ready for what’s coming next. We’re already seeing a global effort from regulators for enhanced regulations and from an investment manager perspective, that creates both challenges and opportunities.”
One of the main challenges that DMS’ clients are facing is that of increased substance requirements from global regulators. Brown comments, “For example In Europe, there is an increased focus on substance and oversight from service providers to demonstrate that they have the capacity and the infrastructure to be able to support the regulatory requirements and in addition, that they have the required investor protections in place that the regulator is looking for.
DMS has made a significant investment into its infrastructure, people and technology and following its merger with MDO and MontLake, has been able to increase the breadth of its services considerably, we’re therefore in a very good place to execute these complex solutions.”
Brown notes that the types of funds that investment managers were putting together five or ten years ago were more streamlined than they are today. This has now changed, says Brown, “An investment manager will no longer be looking solely to access investors in one market, instead, they’ll be looking to access , Latin America Europe and APAC regions and with that desire comes the complexities of structuring those vehicles.
With operations in key financial centres across all of these regions, DMS is in a strong position to offer expert knowledge and experience. We can assist investment managers in structuring and operating investment products as they require them.
By working with DMS, managers get a partner that can help them work through these challenges. They can look to create opportunities for new asset raising or new investment strategies and then look to distribute them globally.”
From Brown’s perspective, there has been a considerable rise in institutional interest to reallocate to hedge fund managers these unusual times, particularly in relation to relative value, TMT and healthcare investment strategies. “In contrast to the 2008 financial crisis, we’re not seeing a mass redemption from investment strategies throughout the current pandemic. Instead, what we are seeing is a reallocation to existing investments, with investors now actively searching for new investment strategies to allocate to,” he observes.
Consequently, Brown expects managers to be expanding their product range in response to this client demand. This will be a key area of focus for DMS in the coming year, Brown outlines, “We have the ability to grow with our clients, we’ve seen hedge fund managers recently launching their first ever private equity fund and because of our background and extensive experience across all investment strategies, we’re in a strong position to assist them as they diversify their product range.”
Matthew Brown
Managing Director, DMS Governance
Matthew Brown leads all aspects of client service delivery across the North America region. Matthew has a wealth of experience as a new business executive who has operated in the equities, investments trading and hedge fund market. He has a successful track record in building teams, providing significant ROI and developing strong networks in markets such as Europe and the Middle East. As Managing Director, based in the New York office, Matthew is principally responsible for establishing strategic partnerships and business relationships to market the firm’s products and services across all business lines.
