Harbour Asset Management has retained its incumbent fund admin provider, Trustees Executors (TE), after putting the service out for tender to the wider market.
TE is also currently vying with Mercer for the Fisher Funds back-office spoils, Investment News NZ reported last week. The $6.6 billion Fisher is looking to rationalise its fund admin providers, with TE and Mercer the dual incumbents.
As well as the Harbour and Fisher reviews, New Zealand’s back-office industry was rocked in August with the news that Aon had sold its fund admin business to Link Market Services.
In a statement, TE says Harbour embarked on the back-office review as part of its Managed Investment Scheme (MIS) licensing process.
“As part of the standard license conditions, Harbour are required to review back office services, ensuring they are fit for purpose and are providing value to clients,” the statement says.
Following the review, Harbour, which boasts almost $2 billion in funds under management, would continue to use TE’s Securities Services division to provide registry, fund accounting and custody.
Jody Kaye, Harbour chief operating officer, said via press release “we are confident that the services provided by TEL and the controls environment that they have in place will help us meet our regulatory requirements”.
“The outsourced arrangement we have with TE allows us to concentrate on managing money on behalf of our clients,” Kaye said.
TE has about $35 billion in funds under administration, the statement says.
Both TE and Mercer this year transitioned to the Bravura ‘Sonata’ registry platform.
TE also recently integrated SS&C’s ‘Pages’ reporting tool with the industry-standard HiPortfolio (also owned by SS&C) custodial and investment accounting platform.