Global funds manager Dimensional has appointed Citi’s securities and fund services as back office provider to its Australian funds.
Citi will provide custodial, fund accounting, unit registry and securities lending services to the Dimensional Australia funds, extending on existing middle office services which the firm has provided since 2006.
Dimensional Australia chairman and chief executive officer, Glenn Crane, said the decision to award the contract to Citi followed an extensive global due diligence process, in which end-client benefit was the over-riding requirement.
“The market for back office services is a demanding one and client needs are changing.” Crane said. “We need efficiency, responsiveness, technological sophistication, reliability and cost-effectiveness. And that means better services to our clients.”
Citi’s head of securities and fund services for Australia, Martin Carpenter, said: “In this complex and competitive environment, it’s important that the Australian asset management sector partner with an organisation that has a premium product suite and global reach.”
Citi already provides custodial services to US clients of Dimensional who invest in non-US funds.
Dimensional is a privately held global institutional asset management firm with approximately $300 billion in assets under management globally, including more than $22 billion for clients in Australia and New Zealand.
Dimensional began in the US in 1981. It opened its Sydney office in 1994 as an Asia Pacific trading hub and began offering strategies to Australian institutional and fee-only financial advisor clients from 1999.
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