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Cross-border fund distribution operations: Making investment funds easily accessible to global investors — A wake up call

Sebastien Chaker, Managing Director, Calastone Transaction Network


Abstract
This article looks at the disappointing progress made in terms of processing efficiencies in the cross-border funds industry despite more than a decade of heavy investment in this field. It aims to identify the main reasons why so little progress has been made over these years, why so many Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities (UCITS) funds’ investors and distributors have not embraced the automation solutions that they were offered and what the risks for the UCITS industry could be if it does not improve the way UCITS funds are accessed by their global and diverse investor base. The article aims to challenge the way the industry has tackled this problem until now and proposes new options and ways to solve the automation challenge faced by the industry.

Keywords
cross-border funds distribution, funds automation, funds trade and post-trade efficiency, funds accessibility, funds distribution, funds processing, fund distributors, interoperability, funds messaging


Sebastien Chaker has headed Calastone’s Luxembourg office since March 2010 and is responsible for international business development. His career spans 15 years of experience in the investment fund market. Sebastien joined Calastone from Brown Brothers Harriman Limited in London where he was Global Head of Fund Solutions Business Development. Prior to this, he worked for Euroclear SA in Brussels where he was Director in the Investment Funds Product Management division, with primary responsibility for defining and implementing Euroclear’s FundSettle global funds strategy. Sebastien started his career at Citibank Global Consumer Bank in Paris as a product manager in charge of investments and savings products including CitiChoice, the bank’s third-party fund distribution programme. He graduated in 1995 from the Universite Libre de Bruxelles in the Faculty of Economical, Social & Political Sciences.


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