Rathbone Brothers Plc. (Rathbones), a leading provider of investment management services to private clients, charities and investment advisors, has taken a major step in automating its fund settlement process by using Euroclear UK & Ireland’s (EUI) investment fund service, effective immediately. EUI is the sole processing provider to offer end-to-end services for the settlement of fund units and applicable cash movements to the entire Rathbones distributor community.
John Trundle, Chief Executive Officer of Euroclear UK& Ireland, commented: “Rathbones is smart to move to automated transactions settlement with us. EUI’s delivery-versus-payment settlement means that cash movements related to subscriptions and redemptions are reflected on the register typically two hours after the notional units have exchanged hands electronically. By linking cash and unit settlement, firms can greatly improve their daily treasury operations; cash from proceeds is usually available between 6am and 8am on the intended settlement date and available for the entire business day. Rathbones avoids the risks, costs and reconciliation complications of manual cash processing when payments are decoupled from the unit movements.”
Andrew Butcher, Chief Operating Officer at Rathbones, said: “Euroclear UK & Ireland’s service for unit trusts makes perfect sense for us. It is fully scalable as we can integrate the processes with our UK equity settlements. We are custodian for GBP 22 billion of client assets, so having the benefit of full registry reconciliation transparency which automated settlement affords, plus easier cash management through the CREST cash memorandum account, will prove highly beneficial to our Operations teams."
Developed in partnership with 39 fund organisations, Euroclear UK & Ireland’s automated fund processing solution delivers end-to-end automation. From the placing of a funds order, to the settlement, transfer, reconciliation and corporate action processing of the asset, makes a fund held in the UK as easy to administer as any other EUI-eligible instrument.
Firms using the EUI service can see substantial cost savings and reductions in operational and counterparty risks. Trade-to-settlement cycles are cut typically to four business days after the trade is struck compared with up to 10 business days today. Unit movements and related cash debits and credits can be monitored in real time and reconciliation is automated.
