Clearstream Banking SA

06/15/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 06/15/2021 02:44

Whitepaper: Meeting third-party custody needs of UK platforms and wealth managers

Whitepaper: Meeting third-party custody needs of UK platforms and wealth managers

15.06.2021

Pressures on UK platform operators' and wealth managers' margins have created a point of inflection in the market for back-office outsourcing services. What's the explanation for sticking with subscale inhouse third-party funds custody operations when the economic logic for outsourcing is so clear?

Platforum, a UK research firm analysing trends in investment distribution, in association with Clearstream performed a study on third-party funds custody and related back-office functions to provide answers to this question.

For the whitepaper 'Meeting third-party custody needs of UK platforms and wealth managers', Platforum interviewed a wide range of platforms, wealth managers and technology providers in Q1 & Q2 2021 to establish business models used and their comparative merits.

Why is the time ripe to review your third-party funds model

Handling third-party funds custody inhouse can lead to all kinds of challenges for businesses - especially from a regulatory (CASS - UK Client Asset Sourcebook rules) point of view.

Custody requires huge scale and administrative focus, relying on economies of scale for processing, security and efficiencies, which smaller organisations can hardly achieve. UK platforms and wealth managers vary in their approach to third-party fund custody. Some do it all in-house, some outsource entirely and others take a hybrid approach.

Act now

The whitepaper shows why the senior managers of wealth management and platform organisations need to clearly review their current third-party custody arrangements to see if they can cut costs and increase security.

New capabilities for outsourcing have fundamentally changed the opportunity for finding efficiencies and increase security.

Outsourcing to trusted specialists, such as Clearstream's Vestima suite of fund execution services with the scale and expertise to do the job safely and compliantly is in many cases not just safer, but also less costly.