West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Citi is opening a daily operational suite of solutions for hedge fund managers that they hope will improve efficiency and allow managers to focus on optimizing investment decision making.

"The Hedge Fund Middle Office service has been designed to improve operational efficiency and transparency for hedge fund managers by providing independent third party operations," said Chandresh Iyer, Head of Global Custody and Investment Administration Services at Citi. "It can be used either on a stand-alone basis, or in conjunction with Citi’s suite of Hedge Fund Administration services," he added.

Citi’s Hedge Fund Middle Office services include a comprehensive suite of post-trade and pre-settlement services which are scalable and modular. The services are global and include technology solutions that help manage daily trade processing and P&L reporting, OTC confirmation and valuation, collateral management, corporate action processing and cash management. In addition, Citi’s solution allows hedge funds to move to a more variable operational cost model – an especially attractive feature in the current cost-constrained environment. Hedge Fund Middle Office services are available to funds operating in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

With the addition of Hedge Fund Middle Office, Citi’s Global Transaction Services now offers an end-to-end hedge fund servicing platform. The solutions include administration, custody and OpenPrime, a portfolio management and order management system that is prime broker agnostic.

Global Transaction Services, a division of Citi’s Institutional Clients Group, offers integrated cash management, trade, and securities and fund services to multinational corporations, financial institutions and public sector organizations around the world. With a network that spans more than 100 countries, Citi’s Global Transaction Services supports over 65,000 clients. As of the first quarter of 2009, it held on average $278 billion in liability balances and $10.3 trillion in assets under custody.

Editing By Alex Akesson

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West Palm Beach (HedgeCo.net) – Hedge fund assets under administration (AuA) have grown to $91 billion as of 31 March 2009 from $88 billion at 31 December 2008, according to hedge fund tech. and analytics procider GlobeOp Financial Services S.A.

"I am encouraged by the level of fund inflows during the first quarter of 2009." Hans Hufschmid, chief executive officer, said, "New clients with AuA of nearly $12 billion, along with new funds from existing clients of $5 billion and subscription inflows of $3 billion, offset first quarter redemptions and terminations, which we knew would be substantial, as referenced in our 2008 preliminary results announcement."

"In addition," Hufschmid continued, "client fund performance generated over $1 billion, a positive sign that hedge fund managers may have begun adapting to the changing market environment."

GlobeOp noted a sustained investor demand for greater transparency, independent portfolio verification and control of capital. Fund managers are looking for operational solutions to meet these requirements and to improve their own operational cost structures that are challenged by redemptions and lower fees.

"Funds will remain under pressure from redemptions by investors and raising new capital will continue to be challenging. Thus, while GlobeOp’s current pipeline for new business is promising, we remain focused on prudent cost management and productivity improvements."

With headquarters are in London, New York, Dublin, Ireland; George Town, Cayman Islands; Harrison and Yorktown Heights, NY and Hartford, CT, U.S.A.; and Mumbai (Bombay), India, GlobeOp serves more than 180 clients worldwide, representing $91 billion in assets under administration (AuA).

Alex Akesson

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