Investor Services

12 March 2012: Apex Fund Services, one of the world’s largest independent fund administration companies announces that it has successfully completed a Type 2 examination under Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 (SSAE 16), and under the International Standard on Assurance Engagements, Assurance Reports on Controls at a Service Organization (ISAE 3402).

A key determination for completing an ISAE 3402 / SSAE 16 examination is that an independent service auditor successfully examined the system under audit for processing user entities transactions during the period of audit, as well as the suitability of the design and operating effectiveness of controls based on the defined control objectives.

This examination was performed by KPMG in India, one of the leading firms of independent service auditors for such examinations for 10 offices of Apex Fund Services. 

Commenting on KPMG’s report, Peter Hughes, Group Managing Director, said:

“Fund Managers require increasing levels of confidence and trust in their administrators as the demand for greater transparency begins to take effect. The need for Managers to work with the most reliable partner possible has never been higher.

“Investors and Fund Managers alike can take comfort from the fact that KPMG has completed a ‘root and branch’ examination of the controls and systems at 10 of Apex’s offices. This is another clear demonstration of Apex’s commitment to its clients ensuring they receive the best levels of service in the industry.”

The service auditors issue an unqualified opinion when they are satisfied that (i) the description of controls fairly presents the system that was designed and implemented through the period in scope, (ii) the controls related to the control objectives are suitably designed to provide reasonable assurance that the control objectives would be achieved if the controls operated effectively throughout the period in scope, and (iii) the controls tested, if operating effectively, were those necessary to provide reasonable assurance that the control objectives operated effectively throughout the period in scope.

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Apex Fund Services Holdings Ltd.                            
Peter Hughes, Group Managing Director +44 7780 997609  peter@apex.bm

Mark Way, Corporate Communication     +44 7786 116991  mark@apexfunds.co.uk

About Apex Fund Services

Apex Fund Services is one of the world’s largest independent fund administration companies with approximately $20 billion of assets under administration, 24 offices and over 250 employees across the globe.

The Apex Global Network is at the heart of the Company’s strategy of being located alongside its clients. Apex is unique in its ability to reach globally, service locally and provide cross-jurisdictional solutions and best practices providing the highest levels of personalised services.

Apex provides the full suite of products and services, including fund set up, portfolio valuations, fund accounting, shareholder services, corporate secretarial administration, directorships and listing sponsorship. Apex offers a number of platforms including, Bermuda Emerging Manager platform (for small or start up funds), Luxembourg SIF platform, Luxembourg UCITS platform, Luxembourg Shariah platform (fully Shariah compliant) and the Malta PIF platform. For more information, please visit www.apexfundservices.com.

London: Rapid Addition, the leading provider of trading technology solutions to buy- and sell-side financial institutions, announced that Saxo Bank, the international investment bank specialising in online trading and investment, is leveraging the C# version of RA–Cheetah™ as its FIX Protocol engine which remains the world's lowest latency and highest performing solution.

Designed for the buy- and sell-side, exchanges and MTFs, transaction hubs and ISVs, the firm’s solution enables businesses to benefit from increased throughput, lower deterministic latency and operational flexibility. All of these factors mean that RA–Cheetah™ provides reduced total cost of ownership (TCO) and accelerated return on investment (ROI).

RA-Cheetah is in use at institutions across the globe and Rapid Addition continues to innovate in the ever-demanding low-latency and general trading environments.

Jonas Gudjonsson, enterprise architect at Saxo Bank, commented: “Having developed our own internal FIX engine and maintained it for years, choosing a third party FIX engine was a strategic decision in order to reduce the total cost of ownership in addition to leveraging the knowledge of industry experts.”

Toby Corballis, CEO at Rapid Addition, added: “RA–Cheetah™ is the most flexible and cost effective FIX engine available on the market, processing significantly more messages than any of our competitors. For Saxo Bank, these elements were of particular importance and therefore our product was ideal for their needs. We are delighted to welcome Saxo Bank to our growing family of clients and look forward to working with them.”

Gudjonsson concluded: “Having evaluated a number of different providers, Rapid Addition clearly met our requirements both in terms of latency and throughput, as well as the technology fit being pure .NET/C#. In a high performance and high availability .NET environment, it is important that the right practices are applied especially with regards to garbage collection.”

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Notes to Editors:

About Rapid Addition

With over 70 clients worldwide, including several exchanges, Rapid Addition is the leading provider of FIX and FAST related software solutions to the global financial community. Company founder and Chairman Kevin Houstoun is the designer of the FIX Repository for FIX Protocol Limited (FPL). Mr Houstoun co-chairs the FPL Global Technical Committee and is an active member of the FPL Global Steering committee. He is also a member of the lead expert group for the UK Government’s Foresight Committee on the future of computer-based trading.

Rapid Addition is a technology partner of Microsoft and founding member of Intel Low Latency Labs. Rapid Addition is the only FIX vendor to continuously test their products in the labs. RA-Cheetah, the flagship FIX engine, gives a consistent low-latency performance and is the only FIX engine to provide this level of consistent measurement. RA-Cheetah™ and GRHub™ run on our advanced low latency GenerationZero™ technology that ensures no garbage collection.

For further information, please visit www.rapidaddition.com.

About Saxo Bank

Saxo Bank was founded in 1992 by Co-CEOs Lars Seier Christensen and Kim Fournais.

Saxo Bank was among the first financial institutions in the world to develop an Internet-based information and investment trading platform. From the outset, the Bank emphasised technology as a vital element for being competitive in the online trading industry. With a worldwide client base, Saxo Bank has been recognised for the excellence of its technology and the services it provides.

A fully licensed and regulated European bank, Saxo Bank has built a global base of individual retail clients, corporations and financial institutions from its headquarters in Denmark and numerous regional offices. Since receiving European bank status in June 2001, Saxo Bank has positioned itself as a leading player in online trading thanks to its superior client service, competitive pricing and its focus on developing industry-leading trading platforms.

For further information, please visit www.saxobank.com.  

For media enquiries please contact:

Adam Honeysett-Watts or Ellie Fixter

Hume Brophy

+44 (0)20 3440 5656

rapidaddition@humebrophy.com

London: Uncertainty around inflation rates and concerns about market volatility have fuelled a steady increase in the number of pension schemes looking to de-risk their strategies over the past 12 months. Yet while the amount of longevity hedges and pensions buyouts continues to rise – numbers of longevity swaps have only just tipped double figures leading many to ask: where is the market going?

In a recent Clear Path Analysis survey 60% of respondents indicated their surprise at the slow pace of development with 80% suggesting this was due to costs and complexities of the transactions. Furthermore 60% of pension schemes stated that counterparty risk is gradually becoming the single most critical issue to address when considering a longevity hedge or buy-out transaction.

With pensioners living on average two to three years longer than a decade ago, longevity swaps and vehicles for pension schemes to relieve their risk is now a ‘must have’ discussion point on trustee agendas.  Indeed ITV’s £1.7bn longevity swap benefitting just under 12,000 people, is a prime example of this trend. The third annual Pension De-Risking; Longevity Hedging and Buying Out speaks to many experts about this topic.

Tiziana Perrella, Principal at JLT Pension Capital Strategies, states: “The growing appetite for de-risking is evidenced by the phenomenal growth in market activity over the past few years. The additional competition introduced by a number of new entrants has put downward pressure on prices, which remain very good value in terms of the risk passed across.”

She emphasises: “Insurers are able to invest in a larger and more sophisticated asset mix than even the largest of pension schemes; they can better assess the longevity risk and manage it, through reinsurance or as a result of the mix of business on their books; they can administer schemes efficiently through economies of scale.”

Kelvin Wilson, Head of Pension Risk Solutions at Grant Thornton UK LLP notes how the market is reacting: “The de-risking market is responding to trustee and employer concerns regarding the cost and financing of de-risking solutions. Solutions are now being offered that are bespoke to the profile of pension scheme liabilities, level of funding and the strength of the employer's covenant.  Schemes holding gilt investments may find that the cost of de-risking their pensioners, using a buy-in solution, might have come down relative to the cost of funding.”

“Scheme trustees and sponsors now understand the importance of good risk management and many of them want to manage their pension risks better. Despite deteriorating funding levels, sponsors and trustees are taking advantage of the rise in value of their gilt portfolios to de-risk their current pensioners.” added Wilson.

In an interesting roundtable Andrew Reid, Managing Director, European Head of Pensions Origination, CMTS at Deutsche Bank highlights the complexities of the different options: “From a provider’s perspective, it varies between de-risking schemes, and the solution from one to another varies significantly. The better funded schemes are investigating bulk annuities. In the large to medium end of the pension scheme scale, there is more interest in unfunded longevity only hedges, or longevity plus a few ancillary risks like proportion of married and age difference hedging, rather than a buy-in.”

Reid also stresses the positive effect on company shares of hedging longevity: “There have been cases of very positive market reaction to hedging longevity risk, with companies' share prices reacting favourably."

Isabel France, Partner at Linklaters, underlines the need for specialist advice and warns of counterparty risk: “Very often, the circumstances which make such a transaction appropriate come together at the last minute – and the parties then need to move quickly and prior preparation will help smooth any transaction. The trustees will be taking on counterparty risk in any transaction. They will want to understand what kind of entity is the counterparty, what safeguards exist if that counterparty becomes insolvent and are there options which can improve that position.”

Notes to Editors

Press Contact

Andrew Gates

Hume Brophy

+44 (0)20 3440 5656

clearpathanalysis@humebrophy.com