Investec Wealth and Investment, a wealth manager with £26 billion (€36 billion) of client assets under management, has chosen Crest for automated fund settlement services covering its UK range.
Crest, a central securities depositary, is run by Euroclear UK & Ireland and the service means Investec can extend its automated distribution from order placement, to full settlement of fund units, as well as related cash movements and reconciliation of holdings.
As an international central securities depositary (ICSD) Euroclear, the Belgian parent of Euroclear UK & Ireland, provides post-trade services and it is in competition with Clearstream, a Luxembourg-based ICSD, in the funds automation business.
Euroclear says its automated fund service addresses known problems associated with fund processing, namely “time-consuming manual operations, unacceptably high cost and risk, manifested by a lack of precision around when fund units and cash are exchanged”.
Judy Price, chief operating officer at Investec, says the service means Investec can now process unit trust funds alongside other Crest-eligible asset classes. Crest is used to settle many bond and equity trades in the UK.
“The decision to consolidate unit trust settlement with UK equity and gilt settlement using Euroclear introduces welcome automation and significantly boosts the operational controls and risk frameworks we have in place.”
©2015 funds europe
