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BNP Paribas Transitions Asia-Pacific Clients on to Single Platform

Posted: 14 Dec 2011

When BNP Paribas Security Services implemented pControl from Milestone to integrate its Australian and Asia-Pacific operations, the bank completed a five-year project that transitioned all of its Asia-Pacific clients onto a single operating platform.

According to a case study released by Milestone Group, a specialist provider of fund processing services, BNP Paribas selected the group to handle unit pricing, tax provisioning and cash rebalancing to support efficient processing “irrespective of how varied and different our clients' fund products might be,” says Mark Harrison, head of strategic programs at BNP Paribas.

BNP Paribas’ client base in Australia and across Asia Pacific is managed within complex, multilayer hierarchical fund structures, meaning that its processing solution required strict controls around unit pricing.

“Accuracy and efficiency of execution are absolutely essential in this area, particularly in Australia where the regulatory penalties for getting it wrong are very high and where time to market for delivery of unit prices has increased in competition over the last few years,” Harrison says. “We also wanted something that allowed us to control the workflow of unit pricing and provide management information through the workflow process.”

Australian institutional investors such as superannuation funds need to manage unit prices in an environment where end investors can mix and match asset categories. Additionally, a number of funds are based on predetermined rates, asset allocation weightings and benchmarks, and as they change, the funds need to be rebalanced. Any software platform for BNP Paribas would have to be configured to meet those challenges, Harrison says.

“Unit pricing isn’t something that can be set up once and then left to run forever: The whole thing is dynamic and flexible,” Harrison said in the case study. “Clients’ fund structures are changing all the time, so it was important that we had something that could adapt to our clients’ changing needs, automating our processes, but which we could put under strong IT change management controls.”

In addition to implementing pControl in Australia, BNP Paribas has rolled out the platform across Asia Pacific. But Harrison reports that unit pricing is now more efficient, due to increased automation and integration with other systems.

“There have been huge benefits in terms of cost efficiency, resource allocation and problem identification, despite the wide variety of funds that we manage,” says Harrison. “There's a lot more potential in the product than we are actually using. We have focused on configuring it to support unit pricing and tax provisioning, but we are very pleased to have the product in house because, as we move forward, we know it has wider possibilities both here in Sydney and for BNP Paribas as a whole.”

(RA)

If you have any comments about this story or news tips, contact Christopher Gohlke in New York at cgohlke@globalcustodian.com or Janet Du Chenne in London at jduchenne@globalcustodian.com.