As operational, legal, regulatory and other differences create obstacles for fund managers with global fund families, proposed models for a global transfer agency service offer a future with comprehensive, consolidated and up-to-date information about fund holdings and activities; a consistent level of service across the globe; and un-intermediated digital relationships with investors.

Today, a large global fund complex is likely to be working with multiple transfer agents in its mutual fund business alone. Engaging high numbers of transfer agents has a significant impact on the cost and complexity of operations.

Due to the increased volume of exposed personal records through cyber breaches, it’s much easier for bad actors to combine illegally-obtained information with data gleaned from social media and other web-based, public information sites.  Once armed, these actors have shown incredible creativity in their exploitation of this data to steal money from our organizations and our customers.  Given this information rich-environment, how bad is fraud, and can we stop it?

Following the release of the technical standards on Securities Financing Transaction Regulation (SFTR) transaction reporting on 20^th March, in-scope firms – including credit institutions and investment firms – will need to comply with reporting obligations that come into force on 13^th April 2020.