The Citco Group of Companies (Citco) has appointed Ryan Fitzgerald as Head of Middle Office Solutions to further develop the business line, which recently achieved double-digit growth. The appointment is part of a significant strategic investment by Citco, aimed at providing differentiated, customised solutions based on proprietary technology innovation, to a wide range of clients. Fitzgerald joins from Hazeltree Fund Services, a specialist treasury management solutions provider to the buy-side.
Middle Office Solutions is an integral part of Citco’s front-to-back office ecosystem, which continually evolves based on client requirements, technology innovation and regulatory mandate. Users of Citco’s Middle Office Solutions can select individual services separately or as components. This means Citco’s Middle Office Solutions can be tailored to the unique needs of each client, for example, freeing up internal staff to focus on core business processes, adding scale and minimising operational risk, while also managing their cost base effectively.
Citco’s Middle Office Solutions is extremely flexible, available to both Citco administered, and non-Citco administered firms via an array of delivery models:
• Full Middle Office provides any key service offering as an extension of NAV services. All client data provided as part of core administration services is leveraged to provide the full suite of services.
• Middle Office Only provides any key service where NAV services are not provided. Middle Office interfaces with client’s data directly while downstream interfaces with third party vendors, administrators and brokers.
• SaaS technology is licensed for clients to embed directly into their middle office ecosystem without Citco providing the service element.
• Co-sourcing allows Citco to interact directly in client’s software to provide any or all middle office services.
As part of its investment in Middle Office Solutions, Citco will also be introducing a proprietary collateral management platform, as well as making enhancements to its existing Æxeo Treasury platform and further expanding its suite of services.
“As efforts to streamline operations intensify, our outsourced solutions provide managers with an opportunity to alleviate some of the pressures around tightening margins.” says Jay Peller, Head of Fund Services. “Ryan’s appointment to lead this growing business is at the heart of our efforts to make our clients’ lives easier; his extensive treasury and collateral management experience will help us to continue to develop the right solutions that meet our clients’ changing needs.”
Fitzgerald says: “Citco Middle Office Solutions is entering an exciting new phase. We believe we can offer differentiated services in this space and we have a number of initiatives in development that enable us to lead the way in asset servicing. I am delighted to be leading a business that provides superior solutions that are scalable and cost-effective, providing fast and accurate data, and removing the burden of complex treasury and collateral processing.”
Citco’s Middle Office Solutions provides trade matching, confirmation and settlement, collateral management, three-way reconciliation, treasury and payments services to single manager funds, multi-asset portfolios, private equity funds, real estate funds, fund of funds, family offices, endowments, pensions and insurance companies.
In an effort to further develop solutions in line with current client needs, Citco has recently launched the Citco Solutions Network, a series of panel debates hosted by in-house experts to give clients the opportunity to convey feedback, detail practical issues and suggest ways in which Citco can evolve its offerings.
