Standard Chartered rolls out hedge fund servicing

Standard Chartered Bank has joined the ranks of administrators to hedge funds in Asia and the Middle East. The bank has an existing service of fund admin for long-only asset managers, which is now being expanded to a broader range of fund strategies and types.

Alastair Pow, global head of product for fund services in Singapore, says the bank's clientele is investment managers indigenous to Asian and Middle Eastern markets.

"That said, we are an international bank that has a lot to offer outside of fund administration, such as our global markets business," Pow adds.

The business will be run out of two regional centres, Hong Kong and Singapore. It will support not only hedge funds, but private equity, property and infrastructure funds as well.

The service includes fund and investment accounting, onshore and offshore admin, single and multi-tier investor servicing, and so on. Pow says one of the key differences from long-only fund servicing is how to accommodate performance fees across different fund structures, such as limited partnerships.

He says the initial batch of alternative clients are mainly from Hong Kong but include investment managers based in China, Singapore and Malaysia. Although the firm will consider working on behalf of start-ups, Pow says the focus is on quality rather than making up the numbers.