RBC Investor & Treasury Services has replaced its Australian managing director, David Travers, after 10 years with the firm. The top position has been filled, at least in the interim, by Andy Allen from the firm’s Singapore office.
Travers, who also had a two-year role as head of Asia Pacific for RBC I&TS over 2012-2013, is a former managing director of State Street Australia’s asset servicing arm.
Travers was on ‘gardening leave’ as of last week and said he could not say anything more about the move.
An RBC spokesperson in Sydney issued a brief statement on Friday afternoon: “We are aligning our Australian business with our global organisation to create strong connections across the region and to ensure a consistent delivery of client service. Australia remains a key country in RBC I&TS’ specialist strategy.”
Andy Allen was recruited from JP Morgan Investor Services, in 2014, as managing director of its Singapore business. He has more than 25 years’ experience in the industry.
RBC is the only custodian in Australasia that specialises in services for fund managers, not super funds. It has been engaged in a big systems change from Hi-Portfolio, an Australian and UK backoffice system, with the worldwide Multifonds system used by most other RBC jurisdictions. Such changes are often difficult because of the complexity of Australia’s tax system. JP Morgan also had some difficulty when it tried to replace a part of its Hi-Portfolio system in Australia several years ago.
RBC set up in Australia in 2001 after buying the custody and admin arm of Perpetual Trustees. RBC has maintained Perpetual as a client subsequently, with the most recent contract renegotiations successfully concluded in 2016.
Greg Bright is publisher of Investor Strategy News (Australia)