Intertrust’s recent acquisition of Viteos, a provider of leading-edge technology solutions, points to how firms are reacting to clients’ demand for sophisticated, technology-led products and services. Here, Intertrust’s Guernsey and Jersey Managing Directors, Marie McNeela and Jacob Smed, discuss how the Channel Islands fit into the firm’s new overall vision, which places technology at the heart of its business. They’re joined by Shankar Iyer, founder of Viteos and now Intertrust’s Chief Solutions Officer, who outlines how Viteos will enable the firm to forge into the future.
Pictured (l-r): Jacob Smed, Marie McNeela and Shankar Iyer
What are you looking forward to in 2020?
Jacob: Next year, we’re looking to continue to build a better company for clients and employees alike. That means a company that uses technology to its best effect and marries that with spending more time with our clients to understand what they want.
Marie: The technology that we’ve invested in is starting to change the way we work, so I’m excited to see how that’s going to continue to evolve in 2020 and beyond. We want business partners on the islands and further afield to recognise that our people offer so much more, such as truly bespoke private wealth, fund and corporate services.
How central is technology at Intertrust?
Marie: It’s absolutely crucial to everything we do. We realise that we can offer more nimble and creative solutions to our clients, and technology is going to enable us to do that. It is fundamental to our adaptation to the future business environment and connects us to our clients and colleagues around the world.
Jacob: The finance industry has moved very little in the past 10 years and now there’s a chance for a progressive company like Intertrust to stand up and say, loudly and proudly, that we have an ambition to be a business that services its clients more efficiently through technology.
Why did Intertrust acquire Viteos?
Marie: We’ve worked with Shankar and the team at Viteos for a long time, so we knew that we were getting a quality provider of a quality solution. The combination of both businesses enables us to overhaul our technological offering and enables Viteos to expand its knowledge of our other service lines, such as private wealth and corporate services. The unified company will have a greater global presence than ever before, too.
Jacob: The acquisition of Viteos will ultimately make our employees more effective and efficient, which in turn benefits our clients. It makes us an interesting place to work, where you can learn new skills and dedicate yourself to your development and client services. Not many financial services firms can offer that level of time and autonomy.
Shankar: In our initial discussions with Intertrust, one of the things that kept coming up was the importance of timely filing and regulatory reporting. In the North American market, regulatory reporting has become an important aspect of fund services and, of course, that’s also true for financial services around the world. Typically, businesses would engage their existing funds services provider, but we changed the paradigm as firms started to approach us, as a third party, because of our platform. Intertrust wanted that consistent, quality approach across its service lines and that was one of the reasons the link-up made so much sense.
What does Viteos do?
Shankar: When we first developed Viteos, we set out to view the operational side of funds administration through a technological lens. We removed as many manual operations as possible to increase efficiency and this means that day-to-day tasks, such as reporting to clients, calculating returns, the middle-office function and working out net asset value, are all going to be technologically driven. Viteos automates workloads, frees up employee time to do more review and control functions and is a great value to clients, who will receive information about their structure, entities and investments in a more timely and accurate fashion.
Marie: One of the really exciting things about Viteos is how it will enable us to service our clients when they’re on the go, through the client interface. Client service has changed as they are more mobile, expect to receive responses and information almost instantly and their provider needs to be able to meet their demands easily and quickly. Viteos is certain to help us achieve that through its bespoke reporting and client interface.
How will Viteos allow Intertrust to stand out in the islands and around the world?
Jacob: The acquisition sends a clear signal that technology is a central part of Intertrust’s vision. The senior leadership team here has put being a tech-enabled company on the agenda and that’s how we’re all being encouraged to think and talk about Intertrust. We have a change mindset and that is going to become a differentiator in the market for us.
Marie: Something that’s high on the global agenda is the importance of compliance and regulatory reporting. The automation offered by Viteos also provides greater risk mitigation for Intertrust worldwide. The Channel Islands are at the forefront of international regulatory standards and Viteos will help our team to continue to meet these high standards.
Shankar: Everyone in financial services knows the Channel Islands’ reputation for complying with regulations and meeting transparency standards. However, these things are only becoming more rigid, wide-reaching and time-intensive, and reporting therefore absolutely has to be accurate. Automated inputting of information and production of reports will minimise the risks inherent in manual inputting – which is great for Intertrust in the islands and globally.
Viteos was built for US hedge fund administrators; how will it adapt to the Channel Islands’ funds environments?
Marie: The Channel Islands have long-established funds expertise and that has led to the development of bespoke products such as Private Investment Funds (PIFs). The nature of the Viteos offering means we will be able to adapt our platform and reporting to meet the requirements of all types of fund products. We will be working to make sure that the platform meets our administrators’ and clients’ bespoke needs.
Shankar: Viteos is all about collecting, aggregating and processing data from different sources in order to file returns and reports in a timely fashion. That principle is applicable across jurisdictions and across service lines, so we’re looking forward to training our Channel Islands colleagues on the platform’s capabilities and building further technological solutions to the challenges they face in their day-to-day work.
Are you positive about the future for Intertrust in the Channel Islands?
Marie: Absolutely. Our focus on tech is really going to revolutionise the way we work and the way we service our clients. Viteos will enable us to ask our clients what they want and meet that need in a smarter, more comprehensive way than ever before – and that’s hugely exciting.
Jacob: We already have an excellent workforce and our technological advances represent our next evolution and will enable our employees to put even more focus on client service, which is why many of them got into this industry in the first place.
FIND OUT MORE
If you would like any further information on Viteos solutions or any of the services provided by Intertrust, please contact:
• Marie McNeela, Managing Director, Intertrust Guernsey T: +44 1481 211275 E: marie.mcneela@intertrustgroup.com
• Jacob Smed, Managing Director, Intertrust Jersey T: +44 1534 504300 E: jacob.smed@intertrustgroup.com
Information correct as of October 2019. For disclaimer and legal messages, please visit the Intertrust Group website at intertrustgroup.com/legalnotice
• This advertising feature was first published in the November 2019-January 2020 edition of Businesslife magazine