Deals & People June 10, 2008

Schroders Seeks to Expand North American Institutional, Intermediary Business

Schroders announced two new hires as part of the firm's expansion of its subadvisory, broker/dealer, financial adviser, and defined contribution investment-only (DCIO) distributions.
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Shaun Levesque, brought on as institutional sales director responsible for the East Coast, will be based in Boston and report to Dean Allen, head of U.S. Institutional Distribution. Michael Jenacova, hired as sales director, Southeast, will be based in Atlanta and report to Carter Sims, head of U.S. Intermediary Distribution. A Schroders announcement said the hires will solidify the asset manager’s market coverage in key geographic regions.

“Expanding our business in the Americas with both institutional and intermediary clients is a strategic priority for Schroders,’ said Jamie Dorrien-Smith, CEO of Schroders, Americas. “Our $259 billion in assets makes Schroders a major asset management player in most key markets across Europe and Asia and we are determined to achieve the same presence in the U.S. Shaun and Michael bring an impressive depth of experience in their respective channels; they are perfectly suited to helping Schroders develop and promote its innovative range of investment solutions.”

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Levesque joins Schroders from Twin Lights Capital, a Hedge Fund of Funds where he was a founder and managing partner. Prior to Twin Lights, he was at CDC IXIS Asset Management Associates as president and CEO of CDC IXIS Associates and executive vice president of CDC IXIS Asset Management, North America. He also held positions at Baring Asset Management, Fidelity Investments, and Interactive Data Corp.

Jenacova joins from DWS Scudder Distributors, Inc., where he was senior regional vice president responsible for mutual fund and structured product sales to wirehouses and broker/dealers in the Georgia and North and Central Florida region. Prior to that, he was first vice president, SunTrust Investments Services, Inc.

Products June 10, 2008

SunGard Launches Real-Time Compliance Monitoring Tool

SunGard released a new version of the StreamCore Compliance Dashboard, a vendor-neutral compliance application to help broker/dealers meet transparency and supervision requirements during clearing and settling.
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According to a release, the system aggregates information from multiple transaction processing systems and presents centralized workflows and views of information in real-time. It also includes an audit trail showing that the firm has properly supervised its outsourcing provider.

The dashboard monitors the progress of trades and displays any problems that may occur. By capturing the trade reporting data from the back-office system, the dashboard gives managers the ability to know instantly when the trade was executed and entered, when the back-office sent it to the regulator, and whether or not the trade was rejected. The application color codes the summary of trade status with the option to receive more detail in order to view problems or delays in the trade.

As the current regulatory environment emphasizes reporting transactions within a given timeline, SunGard stresses the importance of real-time monitoring.

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“There is inherent regulatory and litigation risk behind every error and every failed transaction,’ said Gerry Murphy, president of SunGard’s brokerage and clearance business. “Many broker/dealers struggle with bringing back-office information to the middle- and front-offices, which can lead to regulatory issues. SunGard’s StreamCore Compliance Dashboard helps bridge these gaps by tying real-time profit and loss information to back-office information, providing accurate firm profitability on a daily basis, and unifying the presentation of information across disparate platforms.’

SunGard said the first version of its StreamCore Compliance Dashboard provides alerting and workflow capabilities for the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB) and The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority’s (FINRA) Trade Reporting and Compliance Engine (TRACE)—both of which require quick turnaround after trade execution.

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