INDOS Financial assets under depositary rise 160% reflecting increasing recognition of the key role played by independent depositary services.
London – 6th October, 2016.
INDOS Financial, the UK independent AIFMD depositary has recorded a growth in assets under depositary from September 2015 through end-September 2016 of $8bn to a total of $13bn, a rise of 160% over the period. Over the same period the number of client relationships has grown 70% to 45 clients.
Bill Prew, CEO of INDOS Financial, attributed this rapid growth to an increasing recognition by investment managers and investors of the value offered by an independent depositary.
“The value of the depositary beyond meeting regulatory compliance obligations should not be discounted,” said Bill Prew. “Many managers initially viewed the appointment of a depositary as a box-ticking compliance exercise which would lack value. In fact depositaries are there to help safe-guard investor capital, and perform an important oversight function over compliance with fund rules.”
Mr Prew went on to point out that, “A number of managers initially hired depositaries based on pricing or whether their fund administrator offered it as a bundled service. This is changing. Managers realise that hiring a depositary based purely on commercials and convenience rather than service quality and transparency is a false economy. Equally, investors and managers are pushing for depositaries to be independent from the fund administrators – much of whose work they oversee.”
