Northern Trust Enhances Fund Administration and Transfer Agency Capabilities for U.S. Mutual Funds

March 10, 2016 CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In response to increased regulatory focus on U.S. mutual funds fee arrangements, Northern Trust has enhanced its reconciliation and payment processing for intermediary payments to improve automation and provide more comprehensive reporting to its clients.

U.S. mutual fund distribution and servicing arrangements have increased in complexity. Broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries have sought omnibus recordkeeping arrangements, with a single “house” account held on the transfer agent’s books, and the underlying subaccounting being performed by the intermediary. This has led to increased focus on intermediary oversight, including tighter controls around the reconciliation and payment of distribution and servicing fees.

With the implementation of Broadridge Financial Solution’s Revport tool, Northern Trust has streamlined its process for invoice validation, controls around invoicing and payment processes and reporting options on how funds communicate with their boards.

“As the SEC has increased its focus on mutual fund fee arrangements, Northern Trust has developed capabilities that help our fund clients tighten controls around their oversight process,” said Dan Houlihan, head of Global Fund Services in North America at Northern Trust. “We view this as a natural extension of our dealer servicing support for U.S. mutual funds.”

Key aspects of the enhanced capabilities include:

• Greater automation of payments, including the calculation of expected invoice amounts;
• Improved reconciliation, with the ability to compare expected amounts to actual invoices, set tolerances and identify discrepancies and;
• Enhanced board-ready reporting, including summarized payments and fee arrangements.

“Broadridge is excited to work with Northern Trust to enhance its intermediary payment oversight process,” said Chris John, President, Revenue and Expense Management, Broadridge. “Our Revport tool provides data aggregation, extensive workflow capabilities and audit controls and a flexible calculation engine to make the calculation, reconciliation and approval process more efficient.”

About Northern Trust

Northern Trust Corporation (Nasdaq: NTRS) is a leading provider of wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking to corporations, institutions, affluent families and individuals. Founded in Chicago in 1889, Northern Trust has offices in the United States in 19 states and Washington, D.C., and 20 international locations in Canada, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region. As of December 31, 2015, Northern Trust had assets under custody of US$6.1 trillion, and assets under management of US$875 billion. For more than 125 years, Northern Trust has earned distinction as an industry leader for exceptional service, financial expertise, integrity and innovation. Visit northerntrust.com or follow us on Twitter @NorthernTrust.

Northern Trust Corporation, Head Office: 50 South La Salle Street, Chicago, Illinois 60603 U.S.A., incorporated with limited liability in the U.S. Global legal and regulatory information can be found at http://www.northerntrust.com/disclosures