Clearstream has taken an important step in strengthening its ties with Latin American financial markets by signing Latin Clear Panama as the first transfer agent (TA) to join its investment funds platform, Vestima.
Accordingly, in the course of July 2013, investment funds domiciled in Panama will be eligible for order routing, settlement and custody at Clearstream.
The Vestima suite of services will bring increased operational efficiency and security benefits to the Latin American financial markets by providing centralised delivery versus payment (DVP) settlement services based on synchronous exchange of cash and securities between fund distributors and transfer agents.
Philippe Seyll, Member of the Executive Board of Clearstream and Head of Investment Funds Services, said the cooperation with Latin Clear and the migration of Panama domiciled funds to Vestima was key in light of the company's Latin America funds strategy as it allowed international investors to gain easy access to these financial instruments.
"We are pleased to welcome the first TA in Panama, a major domicile for cross-border distribution of investment funds in Latin America, where markets are gradually opening up to offshore funds," he said. "Our objective is to become a partner of choice for the financial institutions in the region that wish to enhance their investment funds offering."
Clearstream is headquartered in Luxembourg which has more than EUR 2,500 billion (April 2013) assets under management in investment funds. Luxembourg is the second-largest funds market in the world after the US. Currently, more than 3,800 collective investment schemes are administered in and distributed from the Grand Duchy.