MUFG Investor Services

The fund administration arm of the Japanese banking group has built a sizeable business , covering private equity and real estate as well as hedge and mutual funds . Its commitment to the industry is evident in the acquisitions made in 2013 ( Butterfield Fulcrum ), 2014 ( Meridian Fund Services ), 2015 ( UBS Alternative Fund Services ) and 2016 ( Rydex Fund Services ). And , although MUFG has not attracted a lot of responses , those that assessed the services clearly like what they get . “ They tend to offer more different kinds of services to the customers and save a lot of client ’ s compliance time and so we would continue to onboard new funds to them , if any ,” is the verdict of one manager . MUFG collects outstanding scores for all varieties of reporting , and there are comments to match across reporting to managers (“ There is no issue as a daily service ”), investors (“ They have flexibly responded to requests from investors ”) and auditors (“ They provide auditors with timely response and adequate information ”). In the core services of fund accounting and investor services – there is no issue with the KYC , AML and sanctions screening due diligence either – MUFG clears the benchmarks with ease . “ Very experienced team and staff are loyal to the company ,” writes one client of the fund accounting services . “ We have worked with some of the team members for over ten years .” The bank shines in operations too . “ One-stop services and single contact , very clear team structure and a designated account manager can solve your problem [ in a ] timely [ manner ],” writes a respondent Clients with experience of on-boarding are not quite as enthusiastic (“ It takes a long time to review the agreement ”), but they are few in number . The score for client service is not the best but it is soundly based . “ Very responsible client service ,” says a client . “ You can always get a person to answer your questions .”

Northern Trust

Northern Trust Hedge Fund Services ( HFS ) has a clear idea of the type of client that it wants to service ( the largest global fund managers ) and a distinctive idea of what it can offer them ( a comprehensive operations partnership that reaches beyond fund accounting and investor services ). Those managers and these ambitions are not much in evidence in the responses to this survey , though predictable strengths in banking ( in April HFS launched a cash optimisation service to help hedge fund managers monitor and manage liquidity ) and depositary services ( HFS clients have access to an in-house depositary via the Northern Trust Company ) are visible . Comments , if not scores , also suggest that HFS get client service right . One client says that it is “ very rare that SLAs are not met ” and that “ should this happen , they are excellent at advising us well in advance so that we can work together to resolve any issues .” Another client has also experienced similar responsiveness . “ When Northern Trust was notified of our dissatisfaction with the service we were receiving , steps were taken to remediate the relationship issues within three months ,” he writes . “ These changes resulted in a higher level of service and complete turnaround in the relationship .” HFS is certainly looking to keep its services aligned with a changing asset management industry . Earlier this year , the private equity and hedge fund units were merged into a single alternative fund services business , on grounds that managers now range across private equity , real estate , infrastructure and crypto-assets as well as hedge fund strategies . Though one client would like Northern Trust to go further and include the mutual fund business too (“ Be good if they integrated GFS and HFS ”), the bank would be unwise to tamper with success . Built on the foundation of the 2011 acquisition of Omnium , the hedge fund administration business of Citadel , HFS has grown assets under administration five-fold in the intervening seven years to more than $ 350 billion . Fittingly , in January this year , the Omnium relationship reached its apotheosis with the internalisation by HFS of the Omnium technology platform and people too .