Northern Trust Wins Mandate as T+1 Approaches

The shift to T+1 settlement in North American markets at the end of this month, with the ensuing knock-on-effect in FX markets, has widely been seen as a boost for the custodian bank, as they are able to manage the entire lifecycle of a fund’s operations – this view has been reinforced by news that Asian investment manager New Silk Road Investment, has selected Northern Trust’s Integrated Trading Solutions (ITS) service for outsource trading.

The bank says the investment manager came to it ahead of the major market structure change, pointing out that it will present challenges for Asia-based asset managers who are heavily impacted due to time zone differences. Many managers have sought ways to smooth out that transition by outsourcing their trading functions, Northern Trust observes.

“T+1 introduces significant market timing challenges to investors and managers in Singapore and New Silk Road has a strong understanding of the issues involved in this change,” explains Gerard Walsh, global head of client solutions, banking and markets, Northern Trust. “Northern Trust is very pleased to be working with New Silk Road to ensure their US dollar execution, trade matching, clearing, settlement process, and trade-related foreign exchange are managed as a single lifecycle.”