Chitra Baskar: 2021 Asset Servicing Industry Predictions & Ireland's Fund Market Growth

Our Chief Operating Officer and Global Head of Funds and Product, Chitra Baskar, was featured twice in the latest issue of Asset Servicing Times: first offering her thoughts on the outlook of the industry across 2021; and then commenting on anticipated growth in Ireland’s funds market.

Read on for Chitra’s key insights, and links through to the original articles.

‘2021: Time for the asset servicing industry to shine’

As the asset servicing industry gears up to the new year, Chitra discusses with Asset Servicing Times the vulnerabilities and risks that were exposed by the pandemic in the absence of robust business continuity.

The smaller managers that were operating with minimal in-house teams and infrastructure were the most affected”, says Chitra.

Chitra discusses the need to implement institutional-grade operation processes, a key trend to emerge in the face of disruption. Many larger managers have fully understood and embraced the importance of outsourced services, Chitra adds, and it is believed that the continued trend for 2021 will be to have the right outsourcing strategy as well as a focus on due diligence and selection of service providers.

Read the full article here on page 14.

‘The Emerald Isle’

Here, Chitra discusses with Asset Servicing Times Ireland’s continued appeal as a fund domicile for global funds, with predictions of even further growth this year.

“For our Intertrust Group Ireland office, we anticipate growth in the alternative investment fund (AIF) market and the strengthening of our fund administration and third party AIFM management company service offering. We’re seeing new managers and existing clients require customised reporting and a greater focus on achieving standardised regulatory reporting”, says Chitra.

Amid immense growth within Ireland’s fund administration business, Ireland has experienced an increase in Irish companies expanding their workforces as well as a rise in funds processing figures, especially over the last ten years.

Chitra adds: “We’ve grown both our fund administration and AIFM ManCo teams, hiring experienced individuals, improving efficiencies in reporting, and increasing regulatory oversight functions on our AIFM.”

Read the full article here on page 18.