Clarient reports that Schroders Luxembourg has gone live on Clarient Entity Hub, a utility-based service designed to simplify client data and document management. The adoption of the service by a leading asset management firm builds upon the momentum Clarient has generated over the past year and brings the total number of users to more than 100.

Schroders has adopted Clarient Entity Hub to assist KYC processing for intermediary and institutional investors at its Luxembourg funds hub, and to help counterparties to complete their KYC processing on Schroders' Luxembourg funds. Schroders' decision to adopt Clarient Entity Hub reflects a broader industry trend as market participants move towards utility-based services that aim to improve standards of KYC assurance and improve operating efficiency on an industry-wide basis.

Clarient Entity Hub eliminates costs and risks associated with the bilateral exchange of client entity data and documentation between institutional investment managers, hedge funds, corporations, broker/dealers and custodian banks. The service enables users to establish and manage their unique client relationships and associated entity data and documentation from a single, secure location, with functionality to identify, collect, and validate integral content necessary to meeting global Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements.  It also leverages data from DTCC’s Avox Data Services, including over two million validated legal entities.

"KYC has become more demanding over the past 10 years", said Noel Fessey, Schroders' Global Head of Fund Services. "Legislators and regulators demand higher standards of defence against money-laundering, terrorist financing and tax evasion. Investors also demand better protection against operational and conduct-of-business risks in intermediary fund distribution networks. The list of documents to be obtained from a prospective customer or counterparty is long, and ongoing review obligations means that they must be regularly checked and renewed if necessary. This is challenging for fund promoters, investors, intermediaries and counterparties, and repetitive for many of them.”

Mr. Fessey added, “We see Clarient serving a common interest, helping parties to ensure that they comply with their KYC obligations to appropriate standards whilst bringing vital improvements to efficiency and usability."

Today, the Clarient Entity Hub user community is comprised of over 100 leading investment managers, corporations, trusts, outsourcers, broker/dealers and banks, including The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) and the Clarient founder banks: Barclays, BNY Mellon, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase and State Street.

“We are pleased to see continued adoption of the Clarient Entity Hub service across all market segments, as more and more firms are considering utilities for their client entity data management processes,” stated Matthew Stauffer, CEO of Clarient Global LLC. “As an industry-owned and governed organization, we’ll continue to enhance the service to meet clients evolving data and documentation management needs.”

Clarient Entity Hub will continue to be enhanced over the coming months, with new regulatory data collection functionality, tax capabilities and further integration with existing DTCC data services such as Omgeo ALERT, the Global Trade Repository (GTR) and the Global Markets Entity Identifier (GMEI) Utility.