Investec Wealth and Investment has adopted Euroclear UK and Ireland’s automated settlement and custody system, CREST, for its UK investment fund flows.
The wealth manager has assets under management totalling about £26 billion, and, while distribution of its order payments is already automated, this will be extended to include settlement of units and cash movements, as well as holdings reconciliation.
CREST, Euroclear’s central securities depository (CSD) addresses some of the issues associated with fund processing, including time-consuming manual operations, high costs and high risk, and a lack of precision in the time frame of an exchange.
The system provides end-to-end automation of funds processing, including placement orders, settlement, transfers, reconciliation and corporate actions processing. It is designed to reduce operational and counterparty risk while reducing costs.
It can also help to reduce the trade-to-settlement cycle, allowing all unit movements to be monitored and automating reconciliation.
Judy Price, COO at Investec, said: “Euroclear UK and Ireland’s investment fund service now allows us to process unit trust funds alongside other CREST-eligible asset classes.”
“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.”
Katrina Sartorius, head of product management at Euroclear UK and Ireland, added: “Extending operational efficiencies to the capital markets where we operate, while in parallel driving out as much risk as possible, is intrinsic to our role in the markets. So, it is a very rewarding compliment and sign of trust for a CSD such as ours to be chosen by one of the country’s major financial institutions for their domestic flows.”
