In other news, Goldman Sachs sells its PFM business, Helix enables DeFi derivatives & IPC & Celoxica collaborate for an investment bank.
Acquisition to Help SS&C’s Transfer Agent Business
Iress, a trading software and services provider, is selling its managed funds administration (MFA) business to SS&C Technologies, which will use the acquisition to strengthen its position as a transfer agent in Australia, officials say. Iress is based in Melbourne, Australia.
“The MFA business [from Iress] is one of Australia’s largest third-party fund registries, with around AUD900 billion in managed assets across over 1,400 funds, four custodians, and 69 fund managers. The deal is expected to close in Q3 2023,” according to SS&C.
The acquisition will expand SSC’s offering in Australia as “150 team members are expected to join SS&C Global Investor & Distribution Solutions, which focuses on transfer, unit and platform agency and administration. They will report to Euan McLeod, head of transfer agency, APAC,” according to SS&C.
“The MFA team will augment SS&C’s capabilities with a full range of outsourced unit registry capabilities for Australian fund managers and custodians. Iress’ clients will enjoy the same outstanding service backed by SS&C’s size, scale and comprehensive member and investor servicing capabilities,” officials say.
The announcement helps SS&C “to further develop its fund servicing footprint in Australia and elevate our global transfer agency capabilities,” says Bill Stone, chairman and CEO at SS&C, in a prepared statement.
“We are deeply committed to this region and look forward to expanding Australian asset managers’ access to best-in-class digital servicing, data solutions and servicing support across the investment management lifecycle. Our mission is to deliver the same high-quality processing and investor experience to our global clients wherever they conduct their business,” Stone says.
“SS&C is a natural home for the MFA business,” says Marcus Price, CEO of Iress Group, in a statement. Iress offers software and services for trading transactions and market data, financial advice, investment management, mortgages, superannuation, life & pensions, and data intelligence, officials say.
SS&C provides services and software for the financial services operations and healthcare industries. SS&C is headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut.
Goldman Sachs Sells PFM Business to RIA
The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. has confirmed that it has sold its Personal Financial Management (PFM) unit to Creative Planning, a registered investment advisor (RIA) with more than 2,100 employees across its affiliates and $245 billion in combined assets under management and advisement, according to Goldman Sachs.
“Creative’s wealth management teams will continue to have access to investment solutions and services from Goldman Sachs Asset Management as it builds a leading investment management platform,” according to the announcement. “In July 2023, Creative entered into a strategic custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions (GSAS).”
The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2023 and result in a gain, according to Goldman Sachs.
“This transaction is progress toward executing the goals and targets we outlined at our investor day in February. It is margin accretive to Asset & Wealth Management and allows us to focus on the execution of our premier ultra-high net worth wealth management and workplace growth strategy and to serve HNW investors through RIA and other wealth management clients, such as Creative Planning,” says Marc Nachmann, global head of asset & wealth management at Goldman Sachs.
“We will continue to support PFM and other Creative advisors with access to our investment solutions through our expanded strategic agreement,” Nachmann says.
Creative Planning will be building upon its existing custody relationship with Goldman Sachs Advisor Solutions,” says Peter Mallouk, president and CEO of Creative Planning, in a statement. “Together, we will offer HNW investors comprehensive planning and a broad set of solutions related to wealth and investment management.”
“At investor day earlier this year, Goldman Sachs laid out plans to continue growing its proprietary wealth channels including Private Wealth Management (PWM), workplace (Ayco), the related private banking and lending business and Marcus Savings,” officials say. “Goldman Sachs & Co. LLC is serving as financial advisor and Weil, Gotshal & Manages LLP is serving as legal counsel to Goldman Sachs.”
Creative Planning describes itself as an independent wealth management firm that offers a financial planning-led investment management approach, retirement planning, estate planning, trust services, tax planning, and family office services for individuals as well as 401(k) and institutional clients. The firm has more than $245 billion in combined assets under management (AUM) and advisement across all 50 states and 65 countries as of July 1, 2023.
Helix Enables DeFi Derivatives Trading
Helix, a decentralized order-book exchange, has launched Helix Institutional, which will facilitate the trading of “DeFi derivatives products in a permissioned, KYC-enabled environment,” officials say.
“Decentralized Finance (DeFi) refers to digital assets that support financial products and services that are not facilitated or controlled by any central entity,” according to a definition from Coindeskmarkets.com
“This initiative aims to usher in a new era of decentralized trading for prominent institutions, allowing them to access the benefits of a decentralized exchange (DEX) while adhering to regulatory frameworks. Within Helix Institutional, all markets will be permissioned, meaning that only whitelisted addresses that have passed KYC [know your customer] guidelines can interact and trade with one another,” according to Helix.
“The most popular markets on Helix today include Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Cosmos (ATOM), and Injective (INJ) perpetuals. Moving forward, institutions will also find on-chain indices, real-world asset (RWA), and FX markets that are commonly not available within on-chain trading environments,” according to Helix, which uses Injective, an L1 built specifically for finance, in order to operate its DEX.
“True on-chain trading will fundamentally reshape the world of traditional finance as we know it,” says Chris Choi, product lead at Helix, in a prepared statement. “Helix Institutional sets the stage for sophisticated parties to enter DeFi in a permissioned manner that was previously not possible. In turn, both on-chain capital inflows and usage can begin to rise in unison.”
Helix, a decentralized order book exchange for trading crypto-assets, uses Injective, an interoperable layer-one blockchain optimized for building the premier Web3 finance applications, officials say.
IPC & Celoxica Deliver Low-Latency Link for Taiwanese Bank
IPC and Celoxica have collaborated on ultra-low latency market connectivity and pre-trade risk management for an unnamed global investment bank in Taiwan, officials say.
The market access gateway built via IPC’s Connexus platform will “deliver a hosted, fully managed colocation solution to a Tier 1 Investment Bank in Taiwan, for enhanced direct market access (DMA) and pre-trade risk management,” officials say.
“IPC is providing fully managed hosting services in the CHT data center, underpinned by Connexus Colocation, Connectivity and Chrono services, to deliver more efficient market access to – and lower latency trading in – Taiwanese financial markets,” according to the official announcement.
This solution is integrated with Celoxica’s Market Access Gateway (MAG) platform to support “trading multiple asset classes” via comprehensive pre-trade risk management and ultra-low latency performance, “regardless of trading volumes and market volatility,” officials say. “Further, the investment bank benefits from cost efficiencies through replacing capital expenditure with an operational expenditure service model.”
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