This year’s R&M Fund Accounting and Administration Survey was conducted between June and August. Of those who were contacted, 85 fund managers responded on a total of eleven service providers.
For inclusion in the tables, providers had to meet a minimum number of responses and scores are out of a maximum of seven.
The survey questionnaire asked a total of 37 questions broken down into six categories covering core fund accounting and administration, fund valuation, communication, approach and flexibility, quality of personnel and value for money.
Respondents came from the UK, the US, Canada, Ireland, mainland Europe, Saudi Arabia, Australia and South Korea.
This year’s survey found that overall scores remained fairly flat. However, it did see State Street and BNY Mellon move back on the scene. The average score remained steady despite the fact that scores for other individual providers declined.
Commenting on State Street, one client said: “Following a number of challenging years State Street in London has provided a consistently good level of service for some time.”
For the overall table, RBC held on to the top spot with 6.35, increasing its score by 0.14 from last year.
One Luxembourg-based manager said: “We have worked with RBC I&TS for over 20 years and we appreciate especially the excellent and sound service provided in the fund administration.”
State Street took the second spot with 6.11 after missing out on the top seven places last year, knocking off HSBC Securities Services from its position last year. However, HSBC did secure third place with a score of 5.87 despite dropping 0.19 from 6.06 in 2017.
Commenting on HSBC, A UK-based manager said: “HSBC Securities Services remain a key strategic business partner of our outsourced fund administration and back offices services delivered to a consistently high standard which enables us to concentrate on our core business of asset management.”
However, another client said: “Some difficulties during the onboarding, but after that, the quality of the service increased constantly.”
Also dropping a place in overall scoring was Société Générale Securities Services, who moved from third into fourth. Société Générale Securities Services scored 5.75, a 0.11 drop on its previous result.
Northern Trust remained in fifth with 5.49, despite dropping 0.16 from 2017’s figure, while BNY Mellon jumped back into the top seven in sixth place with 5.46.
A BNY Mellon clients explained: “We are seeing a marked improvement in service since BNY Mellon has progressed its ‘transformation’ project to concentrate on more institutional type clients. BNY Mellon’s new attitude towards working collaboratively with their client base is particularly welcome.”
Finally, J.P. Morgan, who suffered a 0.36 drop from its 5.72 score last year when the bank sat fourth in the table.
In the UK, State Street took back its first place position from HSBC with a score of 6.11, a 0.25 jump from last year. HSBC suffered the biggest loss dropping to 5.67 from its 2017 score of 6.10.
BNP Paribas saw its score improve pushing their position up from fifth to third with an increase of 0.32 on last year’s 5.30 score.
One of BNP Paribas’s client said: “Individuals carrying out the day to day work are extremely responsive and take ownership. They have frequently worked long hours at busy periods and work fully as a team with the fund managers.”
Northern Trust remained in fourth place but did see a 0.04 increase in its score from last year. For Northern Trust, the feedback was more concerned with client service. The client said: “Relationship management is one of Northern Trust’s strong points. All relationship staff are knowledgeable and helpful. Operations staff can sometimes be difficult to contact as group phone numbers are used and individual numbers are not specified on emails.”
However, another said: “We are very pleased with Northern Trust’s fund administration service. Their strong point is relationship management and they are very easy to work with.”
BNY Mellon appeared back in the UK top six this year jumping to fifth position with a score of 5.46, while J.P. Morgan dropped from its third position last year to sixth scoring 5.07, a 0.39 drop from last year’s score.
One J.P. Morgan client suggested they received a “good overall service”, while another noted they have had “some experience of slow responses and resolution of errors”.
HSBC Securities Services was also pushed off the top of the leaderboard in Ireland.
The bank dropped 11 points of its 2017 score of 6.64. RBC I&TS took the top spot with a 0.57 increase on its previous score, totalling 6.70. The only other bank to qualify was Northern Trust, who remained in third place, despite increasing its score by 0.05.
In Luxembourg, RBC I&TS also took the top spot, despite its score dropping by 0.55 to 6.09.
Commenting on RBC I&TS, one fund manager based in mainland Europe, said: “System enhancements are required to provide a better quality of service levels (reporting, email order facility, SFTP improvements).
Overall, quality is lower than in previous years, mainly by the disappointing quality of shareholders services and incidents. We received more complaints than previously from our investors on shareholder service (reporting, responsiveness, bureaucracy).”
Société Générale Securities Services also experienced a drop of 0.04 but remained in second position, while HSBC increased its score by 0.10 but remained in third position.
RBC I&TS also dominated mainland Europe, again despite a drop of 0.55 from its 2017 score of 6.64, while Société Générale Securities Services also remained in second place with a increase of 0.12, totalling 5.75.
Finally, HSBC saw a 0.10 increase on its score from last year taking the bank to 5.52.
In addition to the UK, Luxembourg and Ireland, Société Générale demonstrated the broad geographic reach of its service by being the only provider to qualify in France, Italy and Germany.
Société Générale scored 5.89 in France, 5.30 in Italy and 6.16 in Germany.
One German respondent on Société Générale, said: “A service provider in the same country and with the same language is definitely a big advantage.”
Another added: “A service provider in the same country and with the same language is definitely a big advantage.”
