Ireland Alternative Investment Fund Services 2017
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
February 2017 globalfund www.globalfundmedia.commediaspecial report Ireland Alternative Investment Fund Services 2017 Positioning to Service providers Multiple growth be the European adopt client drivers boost RegTech leader partnership path funds industry CONTENTS In this issue… 03 Ireland: Positioning to be the European RegTech leader By James Williams 06 Forging closer links with clients Interview with Linda Gorman, Quintillion 09 Moving towards the paperless office Interview with John Bohan, Apex Fund Services 12 ML Capital evolves fund solutions offering Interview with Cyril Delamare, ML Capital 13 Multiple growth drivers boost Ireland’s Funds Industry By James Williams 16 A ‘KURE’ for regulatory fatigue By Ras Sipko, KOGER USA Publisher Managing Editor: James Williams, [email protected] Managing Editor (Wealth Adviser, etfexpress & AlphaQ): Beverly Chandler, beverly.chandler@ globalfundmedia.com; Online News Editor: Mark Kitchen, [email protected] Deputy Online News Editor: Emily Perryman, [email protected] Graphic Design: Siobhan Brownlow, [email protected] Sales Managers: Simon Broch, [email protected]; Malcolm Dunn, [email protected]; Sales Manager (Private Equity Wire & Property Funds World): Christine Gill, [email protected] Marketing Administrator: Marion Fullerton, [email protected] Head of Events: Katie Gopal, [email protected] Head of Awards Research: Mary Gopalan, [email protected] Chief Operating Officer: Oliver Bradley, [email protected] Chairman & Publisher: Sunil Gopalan, [email protected] Photographs: Courtesy of IFSC; Failte Ireland Published by: GFM Ltd, Floor One, Liberation Station, St Helier, Jersey JE2 3AS, Channel Islands Tel: +44 (0)1534 719780 Website: www.globalfundmedia.com ©Copyright 2017 GFM Ltd. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher. Investment Warning: The information provided in this publication should not form the sole basis of any investment decision. No investment decision should be made in relation to any of the information provided other than on the advice of a professional financial advisor. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The value and income derived from investments can go down as well as up. IRELAND GFM Special Report Feb 2017 www.globalfundmedia.com | 2 OVERVIEW Ireland: Positioning to be the European RegTech leader By James Williams Dublin’s International Financial Services FundCalcs service all parts of the financial Centre (IFSC) employs over 38,000 people services domain. This reflects the commitment and is home to some of the world’s leading that Ireland has to ‘FinTech’ and is very financial institutions; industry stalwarts such much at the heart of the Irish Government, as Merrill Lynch, ABN Amro, JP Morgan. as is evidenced by its IFS2020 strategy for But in recent years, this area of Dublin has International Financial Services, which aims ushered in a slew of technology companies, to create 10,000 new jobs in the IFS sector many of them exciting start-ups specialising (largely through supporting FinTech) by 2020. in financial technology. Alongside the likes Within FinTech, one clear trend in Dublin of Google, Twitter, LinkedIn and Airbnb, all is the emergence of technology companies of whom have their European headquarters that aim to address the regulatory and located here, a number of interesting start- compliance challenge facing all parties ups have sprouted up, causing some to dub in financial services. These ‘RegTech’ this area ‘Silicon Docks’. companies are being established by silver Firms such as Propertygate and Certus foxes; people with many years’ experience in (portfolio management), CR2, Acquirer the industry and a deep understanding of the Systems, CurrencyFair, FINCAD and operational challenges. IRELAND GFM Special Report Feb 2017 www.globalfundmedia.com | 3 OVERVIEW “There are at least 10 such companies in “If you talk to any of our clients Dublin with strong capabilities. For example: Silverfinch, FundApps, FundRecs and and ask them what their pain TradeFlow,” says Cillian Leonowicz, Senior points are, regulation is going Manager Consulting and Deloitte Ireland to be in the top three. For our FinTech Lead. Silverfinch creates connectivity between clients, it is a real pain that asset managers and insurers through a fund they are looking to overcome.” data utility, FundRecs offers reconciliation Lory Kehoe, Deloitte software while TradeFlow provides data tracking and risk alert technology capabilities. The drive for transparency continues “Based on recent research we did around apace within the hedge fund industry, FinTech, what we found is that there is a which just recently saw the US billion dollar niche core of companies in Ireland focusing manager Platinum Partners face allegations on RegTech. The bottom line is if you talk to of fraud. any of our clients and ask them what their “There was a reliance on third party pain points are, regulation is going to be in pricing, which wasn’t properly investigated, the top three. For our clients, it is a real pain the brokerage reports weren’t investigated. that they are looking to overcome,” notes Mr Trump is talking about having a lighter Lory Kehoe, Director Consulting and Deloitte touch regulation to promote the US financial EMEA Blockchain Lab Lead. services industry but that simply isn’t The requirement for stronger data plausible if they want to properly regulate management in terms of having a central the industry,” says John Bohan, Managing pool of data that one can slice and dice is Director – Europe, Apex Fund Services, who becoming critical because global regulators says that managers want to use their fund are increasing the regulatory burden and administrator as more of a one-stop shop. changing the requirements. This is not about “If they’ve got a number of hedge funds, to reverse any time soon. private equity funds domiciled in various One particular solution that could well end jurisdictions with a mixture of US and non- up becoming the primary container for data US investors they need to be able to extract to do the slicing and dicing is Blockchain. relevant data to perform K1 calculations Deloitte has just selected Dublin as the on tax, risk reporting for internal purposes base for the creation of an EMEA Financial and for external client purposes, etc. That Services Blockchain Lab as part of its automatically becomes a high demand FinTech initiative ‘The Grid’. A 50-person for an administrator unless they’ve got team will focus on developing strategic the technology to meet that demand,” blockchain capabilities and proof-of-concepts observes Bohan. into functioning prototypes to create “We’ve over 1,400 funds across the Apex ‘ready to integrate’ solutions for financial group globally. We know that 18 per cent of services clients. those funds are PE and RE funds. We also “One of the best uses of this technology know from our opportunity pipeline using is being able to change the back-end Salesforce that the next six to nine months reporting requirement when it is in the core shows a much higher percentage of PERE blockchain; once it is changed, it is changed funds so we can see what investment for the entire industry. We are currently strategies are proving popular with investors exploring how blockchain can be used as a right now and what might be coming around container for data which can then be sliced the corner. and diced for current and future regulatory “Based on this level of information we requirements,” says Kehoe. can develop stickier client relationship and Moreover, the information being logged generate fees from regulated as well as in the blockchain is immutable. It can’t be unregulated funds,” he adds. changed and this therefore has the potential Asked how important it is for asset to drastically improve transparency. servicers to have access to a thriving 7 IRELAND GFM Special Report Feb 2017 www.globalfundmedia.com | 4 Elements of Exceptional Service Our client-centric approach is a catalyst for your success. Our business model synthesizes superior services, innovative technology, and leading experts located in financial centers across the globe. Smart technology with the power of experience. Global Hedge Fund Administration Made Simple Fund Administration & Risk & Regulatory Support Middle Office Support Conversion & Launch Investor Services Tax & Audit Support Ken Somerville [email protected] +353 1 523 8003 quintillion.com QUINTILLION Forging closer links with clients Interview with Linda Gorman Alternative fund managers have had a myriad becoming individual clients of those of regulatory change to contend with over technology firms, service providers including recent years. In the early stages, many chose Quintillion have become the clients to those to take on the reporting burden themselves. technology firms on a more wholesale basis. This was very much a learning curve. “We administer approximately 160 alternative However, as the complexity of regulatory funds and deploy technology across all of compliance has increased, fund managers them, as opposed to a manager who might have looked to consider how much they use the technology