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Citco
Only two administrators attracted more responses than Citco .
The established qualities of the firm are evident in a fine set of scores across client service , fund accounting , investor services , operations and every variety of reporting . “ Citco has extensive industry knowledge , provides very prompt feedback , is professional and courteous and does an excellent overall job ,” writes a client of longstanding . A second respondent , with the firm less than a year , adds that Citco has “ exceeded expectations since we launched … The team is dedicated , responsive , and I see them as a partner in our business in our early stages and as we grow in years to come .” In fund accounting , the services are variously described as “ great ,” “ excellent ” and distinguished by “ quality and consistency .” Even a client who acknowledges accounting errors were made agrees the “ fund accounting team has been timely , responsive , and makes an ongoing and sincere effort to provide high quality work and meet expectations .” Scores and comments for reporting to investors (“ consistently accurate and delivered in a timely fashion ”) and to managers (“ excellent and accessible ”) are equally flattering . In the comparatively novel field of cyber-security – where Citco earns its best score – there are similar accolades : “ Citco have excellent systems and monitoring of cyber-security risks ; a real strength for them over the last couple of years .” The firm continues to believe in proprietary technologies as the best way to keep abreast of the evolving industry , but the Citco One reporting tool and the Aexeo transfer agency platform attract mixed reviews . One client “ love [ s ] having Aexeo on my desktop , and with their grid reporting capabilities , I can really dig into and have full transparency into my books and records from an accounting , P & L and position perspective .” But another says , “ We do not find their on-line Aexeo system very useful .” Likewise , one respondent sees Citco One as “ investor-friendly to navigate ,” while a second says that “ the portal is clunky and not liked by investors .” At Citco , technology has been an issue for a while , and as every systems installation proves , the gap between implementation and changes in perceptions can be surprisingly long . Implementations also take time (“ Looking forward to having a portal / way to access the KYC [ that ] Citco has on file for our investors ”) and , as they proceed , technology colours everything . Here , respondents praise and blame technology across areas as various as audit (“ Citco ’ s system has certain limitations that require manually adding up figures ”), reconciliations (“ Their technology has helped streamline our daily / monthly process and reduced the redundancy that would normally be required ”), reporting to investors (“ Citco One … provides a secure way to communicate investor-specific information ”), KYC , AML and sanctions screening (“ The burden has increased over the years … but Citco has improved their technology in response to these challenges ”) and client service overall (“ Citco is willingly to do the ‘ extras ’ – they are sometimes limited by their owns systems / software ”). But , as the client who notes that it was not technology but inadequate review of documents that delayed a subscription , the continuing success of Citco hinges on the quality of its people and processes at least as much as the quality of its technology .
“ I have used Citco over the past fifteen years at various firms and am very pleased with how that have grown their platform and increased the value proposition that they offer ,” concludes a client .
49 %
By size
14 %
36 %
Weighted average scores
PROFILE OF RESPONDENTS
Large Medium Small
30 %
19 %
By location
2016 2017 2018 6.02 6.20 6.07
Weighted average scores by service area Service area
Weighted average score
Client service 6.26 4.0 % On-boarding 5.80 1.6 % Fund accounting 6.30 1.5 % Investor services 6.09 0.5 % Reporting to investors 6.00 -0.4 % Reporting to managers 6.02 2.8 % Reporting to regulators 5.81 -3.6 % Reporting to the tax authorities 6.25 4.6 % Reporting to auditors 6.17 1.4 % KYC , AML and sanctions screening 5.84 -3.2 % Depositary services 6.04 0.8 % Corporate secretarial services 5.58 -4.9 % Middle office services 5.65 -3.6 % Banking services 6.01 -1.1 % Operations 6.19 1.1 % Cyber-security 6.39 6.8 % Price 5.91 1.6 % Total 6.07 1.4 %
51 %
Americas Europe and Middle East Asia
+/ - the global average
The Hedge Fund Annual 2018 globalcustodian . com 61