Dear %fname%,
Firstly, on behalf of the entire Northern Trust team, I would like to thank %cname%for the opportunity to participate in this RFI process. Our goal in this document and throughout our RFI response is to demonstrate the knowledge, technology, service mind-set and experience that %cname% is looking for in a partner.
Culturally, our organisations are very similar. We both believe in a true partnership approach which is built around our underlying clients and investors. Employee stock ownership is high in both firms - 75% in your case and in excess of 50% of staff at Northern Trust are shareholders. We believe that this helps our partners feel valued and truly part of the business. Both organisations also have a global outlook with on the ground presence in Europe, Asia and North America.
%cname% would not be a small cog in a big wheel across our business. Our business model is focused on the provision of end-to-end solutions for sophisticated asset managers such as yourselves. We are committed to delivering a market leading service model that exceeds the requirements and expectations of %cname% and your underlying clients and investors.
In relation to the specific opportunity to support your Irish funds, I have outlined below some of the key factors that we believe are worth considering:
Northern Trust has a strategic commitment to asset servicing and we are not distracted by multiple competing business lines. Instead, we are focused on ensuring the safety of your fund assets and delivering high quality servicing to you and your clients.
With over 3,500 dedicated staff, supporting in excess of 650 clients, our dedicated Global Fund Services group is firmly focused on clients such as %cname%. You will benefit from the experience and knowledge we have gained from working with over 25% of the top 100 asset managers globally. In Ireland, we have in excess of 1,700 partners who support US$570 billion in assets, US$300 billion of which are in UCITS funds.
We understand that maintaining a lean cost base is critically important for our clients. Therefore, we have proposed what we believe is a very competitve and compelling tariff. We estimate our overall fees to be a reduction of circa 40% on the fees currently being charged to the UCITS fund. We hope that this is further evidence of our commitment to working in true partnership with you.
As a business, we have also spent significant time and resources identifying ways we can assist our clients, outside of core fund administration, depositary and custody service. One significant added value service is our Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS) offering. ITS has added tremendous value for a number of our clients by allowing them to significantly reduce their trading and settlement costs, demonstrate best execution, pass the regulatory burden to Northern Trust and reduce key dependencies on internal staff. Crucially, this service is also custodian agnostic and can be provided on a standalone basis. We very much would welcome the opportunity to discuss this service in more detail with you.
We appreciate that transitioning funds can be a challenging time. Therefore, we have a dedicated new business team of 10 partners based in Dublin and Limerick to help during this process. The team has extensive experience and a deep understanding of what is required to transition Irish UCITS funds. You would be assigned a dedicated project manager, Gina King, who would document all tasks and highlight where action is required. In addition, we have a dedicated new business team in each of the key operational areas – transfer agency, custody, fund accounting and depositary who focus solely on ensuring that everything is in place to ensure a successful transition. We also have an experienced team of 6 fund lawyers based in Dublin and Limerick who review all fund documentation and related agreements.
We would be honoured to earn your business and work in partnership with the %cname% team as you continue to grow and develop your business and we look forward to working closely with you throughout the remainder of this process.
Clive Bellows Executive Sponsor for %cname% EVP & Head of Global Fund Services, EMEA
