For Jeremy Albrecht, Head of Global Client Coverage Luxembourg at RBC Investor & Treasury Services, fund players specialize in focusing on value-added services, especially around data. Interview.
 

Which trends are you seeing in the industry?

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Allocations to alternative funds continue to rise. RBC I&TS’ Private Capital Services (PCS) product manages the activities of Private Equity, Real Estate, Debt and Infrastructure and we believe there to be three factors which  differentiate our offering:  Firstly, we are a bank which allows us to offer Capital call Financing, but also the security of a firm supervised by the CSSF and the ECB, which is very important in terms of governance. Secondly, we benefit by offering depositary services independent from the management company. Finally, our PCS team of over 140 people is dedicated to supporting these client segments requirements and provides end to end servicing which includes domiciliation, board meetings, capital calls, financial reporting, consolidation, NAV.

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«You have to know how to make the investments today to actively prepare the jobs of tomorrow.»

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What role does data play in your business?

In this changing environment, custodians need to reinvent themselves and find new ways to create value for asset managers. In my opinion, our status as one of the largest transfer agents in the Luxembourg market and our ability to make data intelligible mean that we are in a unique position to help clients oversee their operations, provide insights into the distribution of their funds, improve their investment and risk portfolios and support innovation. Data strategy has become a big point of discussion with our largest asset management and institutional investor clients. We’re spending more time immersed in their worlds to understand what they do with the information that we provide and we’re investing significantly in developing talent, technology and products in this area.  You have to know how to make the investments today to actively prepare for the future.

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How are you managing the transformation of your business?

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Digital transformation comes first and foremost through human transformation. We are committed to supporting our employees to be resilient, continually learn and stay relevant to the evolving industry. And at the same time we are recruiting specialists to help us to comply with new regulations, anticipate future trends and develop new products. Changes in regulation, global trends and scrutiny from regulators means that we are seeing more and more importance placed on roles in areas such as control, risk management, AML, KYC and cyber security.  I no longer expect people to perform the same roles for 30 or 40 years, but it remains possible to have a long career at a company punctuated by regular changes.