London-based Willis Towers Watson has today launched a new low-cost asset management service, the Asset Management Exchange (AMX), which it claims will significantly reduce costs for pension funds.
AMX, which launches in the UK with $750 million (€706 million) of delegated hedge fund assets, will be a one-stop shop where asset owners can invest in external asset managers and where asset managers can access capital.
Willis Towers Watson said that the use of a centralised back office and standardised fund infrastructure will help to bypass the investment industry’s usual high costs and resource duplication.
While AMX will initially focus on providing access to hedge fund strategies further asset classes are expected to follow later in the year.
Chris Ford, global head of investment at Willis Towers Watson, said: “We have long contended that intermediaries in the investment industry have taken too much out of the value chain to the detriment of the end saver.
“We believe AMX will change this by standardising and centralising the investment vehicles that managers and investors use thereby reducing overall costs and increasing marketplace transparency and competition.”
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