NGR Consulting presents its study of the investment fund industry

" Fund Servicing - A Fast Changing Landscape? "

During 2007, NGR Consulting analyzed market trends in investment funds in Europe within the framework of the activities of fund services (custodian banks, fund administration and transfer agents). This internal research led to the decision to undertake market research in Luxembourg, in France and in Belgium.

The research included forty organizations in the three countries. In addition to the principal target group of entities working in the business of fund services, the study includes promoters, fund managers and certain software package providers.

Based on interviews with these organizations, the study presents their views on a certain number of points of interest. Among others, the impact of regulation on their activities, in particular UCITSIV, MiFID and Basle II. We also looked at the development of investment products, both by country and by product type.

The tendencies among the operational models of fund service suppliers showed increasing complexity and an increased need to balance local and global solutions… The survey also analyses the approaches to add value and the adaptation of the concept of quality.

The study underlines the requirement for an organization to be able to provide high level services and quality. This capacity lies mainly in two very important and complementary factors: the technological support and human resources. The results present and explain the attitude and the strategy of these organizations with respect to the development and the use of the technological tools offered by the market. Next to the increasing importance of the role of technology, the role of human resources evolves in a different way, within the framework of the fund industry.

The study prepared by NGR Consulting thus presents a holistic view of the investment fund market. It underlines the factors of change and to tries to explain the evolution in the funds sector, exposed as it is to increasingly fast changes. NGR Consulting will give the detailed results of this study at the time of an exclusive seminar in April 2008.