FNZ has hooked up with the German stock exchange-owned investment back-office service provider, Clearstream, to build a new trans-Europe fund hub.
Under a ‘strategic partnership’ inked last week, FNZ and Clearstream will offer UK and European fund managers the “global and regional intelligence they require to analyse market trends, better understand behaviour, improve decision making around fund distribution, and ultimately deliver stronger business, customer and regulatory outcomes”, according to a release.
The two financial technology specialists will also collaborate on providing cross-platform services that supply “asset managers with a ‘single source of truth’, aggregating data and insights to unify sales, product, risk, compliance and operational oversight functions under a single view”.
Owned by the Deutsche Börse Group, the Luxembourg-headquartered Clearstream is a global securities clearing giant – extending to 59 global markets – while it also offers a wide range of managed fund services.
For example, the Clearstream Fund Centre – which features in the FNZ arrangement – includes “over 72,000 funds domiciled in 25 fund jurisdictions and connects close to 330 distributors to almost 450 fund providers of mutual funds, ETFs and alternative investment funds around the globe”, the statement says.
Philippe Seyll, Clearstream head of investment fund services, said the FNZ partnership would “further grow our strong global network of fund execution and distribution partners via our Vestima and Fund Centre platforms”.
Seyll, also banking chief for the group, said the “new collaboration perfectly contributes to Clearstream’s endeavour to foster efficiency of financial markets, by providing high-quality data, state-of-the-art IT infrastructure and innovative services for market participants worldwide.”
FNZ chief, Adrian Durham, said the deal would boost the group’s growth plans in Europe and the UK.
Partnering with Clearstream “will allow us to significantly enhance our support for asset managers by dramatically increasing transparency across the entire industry”, Durham said in the release.
“This will help us to deliver significant operational efficiencies, reduce friction and enhance the customer experience…,” he said.
Founded in Wellington almost 20 years ago, FNZ has been on a growth spurt of late, boosted by a US$1.4 billion capital raise that valued the-now London-headquartered business at US$20 billion.