The custodian bank has been working with FIS to improve reporting and analytical support for private equity fund administration clients.
Custodian bank Northern Trust has been collaborating with vendor FIS to offer private equity fund administration clients better reporting and analytical tools that will bring more transparency to fund operations, facilitate on-demand data and deliver customized views of portfolio information.
The collaboration is built upon FIS’s Data Exchange Reporting and Analytics (DX R&A) solution, officials say. This collaboration is targeting Northern Trust’s private equity clients that are using some typical means for reporting and analysis.
“In private equity, spreadsheets or in-house systems with imported information are common,” a Northern Trust spokesperson tells FTF News. “Many of our clients use spreadsheets with data that they source from us,” the spokesperson adds.
The Northern Trust Alternative Fund Services business offers fund administration, accounting and data and analytical solutions to “more than 100 private equity managers across the globe,” according to Northern Trust officials. “It supports diverse and complex fund structures across multiple domiciles and jurisdictions and has expertise in alternative investment vehicles, including private equity, private debt, venture capital, real estate, infrastructure and real asset investment vehicles.”
The decision to work with FIS follows Northern Trust’s past usage of the Investran offering from FIS, which acquired the system when it bought SunGard. The Investran private equity software solution “automates front-, middle- and back-office processes for general partners, limited partners, fund administrators, family offices and fund of funds,” FIS officials say.
“Given our long and collaborative relationship with Investran, we wanted a solution that was integrated and seamless, so that updates can be made quickly and efficiently,” the Northern Trust spokesperson says. “FIS provides the lowest risk, highest value product for a long-term Investran user like Northern Trust.”
The new DX R&A-based capability will provide “on-demand reporting to answer investor and investment manager inquiries, providing general partners with direct access to detailed and comprehensive information on their schedule of investments, cash flows, investor capital commitments and balances,” according to Northern Trust officials.
“By incorporating the advanced FIS solution, we give clients the data they need to make more informed decisions,” says Pete Cherecwich, president of Corporate and Institutional Services at Northern Trust, in a prepared statement.
The collaboration will support greater demand from private equity financial officers “for direct and immediate access to their data — enabling general partners to drill down into their trial balances and the underlying transactions. Access to intuitive dashboards displaying performance and risk metrics will soon be available,” according to Northern Trust.
Overall, the FIS DX R&A collaboration provides Northern Trust with “a self-service platform for their clients to view their data, run reports, and analyze portfolio performance,” says Sami Juma, head of Alternative Solutions at FIS, in a statement. “Using our advanced solution, Northern Trust’s clients can transform data into intelligence to improve decision-making, whilst simultaneously benefiting from an enhanced customer experience,” Juma adds.
The collaborative efforts of FIS and Northern Trust are being tested by clients.
“A beta client has been using the reporting tools in 2018 and it is going live for other clients this quarter,” according to the Northern Trust spokesperson.
Northern Trust offers wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families and individuals, officials say. Founded in Chicago, the company has offices in the United States in 19 states and Washington, D.C., and 23 international locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region.
As of June 30, 2018, Northern Trust officials report that they have assets under custody/administration of $10.7 trillion, and assets under management of $1.1 trillion, officials add.
Need a Reprint?