The funds management industry plays a critical role in allowing Australians to build wealth, making it crucial for a fund’s assets to be well protected. Employing a custodian is an effective way to protect investors and safeguard the assets of a managed investment scheme against the risk of theft or loss if, for example, liquidation of the responsible entity or trustee occurs.
In addition to asset protection, appointing an independent custodian allows the Responsible Entity/Trustee and investment manager to concentrate on the fiduciary and investment management functions of the fund, achieving better results for investors, promoting transparency, demonstrating excellent corporate governance and boosting investors’ confidence.
As a custodian, we hold scheme assets on trust and follow a strict asset registration process to ensure they are both identifiable and properly segregated from other trust assets. We hold title to the assets, physical custody of deeds, maintain bank accounts and enter into contracts on behalf of the scheme.
We provide custody services for a range of wholesale and retail investment products such as:
- Property syndicates
- Listed property trusts
- Listed investment companies
- Equity and fixed interest trusts
- Mortgage funds
- Water funds
- Agricultural schemes
- Retirement villages
- Fund of funds
- Private equity trusts
- Venture capital trusts
- Carbon trading funds
Our custody team offers the following services:
- Legal ownership of scheme assets
- Holding and recording cash and money market transactions in identifiable accounts
- Provision of on-line banking and Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) facilities
- Making payments based on clients’ instructions including electronic funds transfers, bank cheques, RTGS and telegraphic transfers
- Receipt and recording of all custody and income maturities
- Reconciliation of bank accounts
- Holding and recording scheme title documents in secure, fire rated and scheme segregated facilities
- Execution of documents in accordance with client instructions relating to the scheme assets including leases, sale and purchase agreements, debt facilities and documents for corporate actions
- Quarterly compliance reports, confirmations of net tangible assets and asset confirmations
- Annual audit of our control environment
Should you be interested in finding out more, please contact us for further information.
In addition to Custody Services, One Investment Group’s Corporate Trust team provides Trustee services for securitisation transactions, can act as Escrow Agent and Note Trustee for retail and wholesale issues. One Investment Group’s Corporate Trust business is considered one of Australia’s leading providers of corporate governance services to the financial services industry.