One year on from the acquisition of INDOS Financial, Jon Masters, Director – Fund & Corporate Services, sat down to reflect on the changes that come from being a fully integrated part of the JTC Group:
It has been just over 12 months since the INDOS Financial deal completed, what has it been like?
Well time flies when you are having fun and also when you have been extremely busy! I think that for me the most positive part of the past year has been the seamless integration with JTC while our core depositary solution continues to perform strongly.
One of the key attributes of INDOS Financial is its independence, it is literally in the name.
We were adamant we would remain independent after the acquisition so we could provide robust, industry leading oversight to all fund administrators, including JTC. Governance and robust service is at the heart of JTC and INDOS Financial which I think is why the move was perfect for both sides.
What have been some of the highlights?
One of the highlights was definitely helping to launch an Investment Limited Partnership (ILP) in Ireland, we were one of the first third-party depositaries to do so. It also showed the benefits of being independent, while in a wider group with Ballybunion Capital, also a JTC Group company, selected as AIFM.
In Ireland, we also gained our specialised licence to provide depositary services to private equity, real estate and other alternative investment funds under Regulation 22(3)(b) of Ireland’s AIFM Regulation.
Has anything been unexpected?
Not unexpected as such but the breadth of JTC’s services has presented multiple opportunities to develop additional services or be involved with parts of the business that we might not have expected. For example, we have been very active with Employer Solutions, themselves an acquisition, and we work closely with perfORM Due Diligence Services who we helped engage with JTC prior to their own acquisition.
As we continue to grow as a business and understand the different services and solutions JTC offers globally, I believe that we will continue to add value for clients while not losing the core depositary service INDOS Financial made its name from. In fact, we have been developing the depositary model across the Group to provide different jurisdictional options for fund managers.
What do you see as the differentiators for INDOS Financial?
We are still seen as the place to go for robust depositary services in the UK and Ireland. This has not changed.
The beginning of 2022 especially has been very difficult with very varied economic challenges so fund managers are looking for stability and experience, both of which INDOS Financial is able to provide. We continue to see interest in our services, and those of the wider JTC Group, as clients become more risk averse.
What are you looking forward to as the next step within the JTC Group?
We have been involved when it comes to developing a digital strategy, building on JTC’s existing digital capabilities. It is clearly a quickly evolving field that continues to present challenges and opportunities for clients.
It is a challenging time for the all asset classes amid a tough financial backdrop and global investment environment but we continue to rely on our robust processes and procedures as an independent depositary service to create strategies for clients.
Aside from this, we always look to develop our “best of breed” offering, supporting an increasing number of listed and unlisted funds to focus on their primary fundraising goals, and I am looking forward to seeing what the next step will be.
To find out more about depositary services, or the wider solutions provided by the JTC Group, please get in touch with Jon directly.
