SS&C evolves ILS fund service offering to facilitate transparency: Mahadeo

Global financial services firm SS&C has been working to evolve its offering for insurance-linked securities (ILS) funds, to provide greater transparency and help ILS managers deliver a more streamlined service to investors, Ken Mahadeo told us in an interview.

SS&C has developed a fund and reinsurance administration offering, with a focus on serving ILS fund managers and reinsurers locally in Bermuda, where it has operated since 1997, as well as globally.

Speaking with us in a recent interview, Ken Mahadeo, the Head of Fund Administration, Bermuda for SS&C Fund Services (Bermuda) Ltd., explained that the continued evolution of the SS&C service offering is always in response to client needs.

“SS&C continues to evolve our service offering and communication portals. Our re/insurance and ILS fund clients have asked for more transparency into our services and the ability to access their data in order to streamline their operations,” Mahadeo said.

He went on to describe some of the enhancements to the all important fund administration service, “Within SS&C Fund Service’s portal, clients can view the data related to fund accounting tasks including reconciliations, trade exceptions, security masters set ups, and they have the ability to independently run reports from SS&C’s accounting platforms.

“Clients can also track SS&C’s NAV process workflow each reporting period for increased visibility into SS&C’s operation and reporting.”

On top of this, SS&C has responded to the increasing scale and global need for payments and reconciliations as well.

He told us that, “The majority of Re/insurance and ILS fund clients have multiple broker and trust relationships and need assistance with wire processing.

“Within the Fund Services portal, SS&C created a SWIFT enabled messaging platform that allows for a single point of entry for all outgoing wire instructions, which creates a more efficient process.”

Part of the evolution of SS&C’s ILS fund administration and servicing offering has involved a focus on the needs of investors as well.

Mahadeo told us that investor communication is increasingly important in the ILS market and so SS&C worked to develop improved tools for ILS fund managers.

“For Investor Correspondences, SS&C rolled out an improved portal called InvestorVision that was developed in conjunction with SS&C’s Intralinks team,” Mahadeo explained. “The portal acts as a repository for all types of investor communications in a secure and user-friendly environment.”

Finally, Mahadeo told us that the team at SS&C has also worked hard to streamline the workflow processes between ILS fund managers and their investors, resulting in a more real-time offering, that brings document management and transfer under a single hub.

He explained, “Our clients can also choose to have their subscription, transfer, and redemption documents transformed into ‘smart documents’ on our E-Investor platform.

“The platform is designed to create a smoother and transparent experience for all parties by allowing investors to complete forms within the platform, eliminating the need to print, scan and email.”

Mahadeo added that, “SS&C and clients also have the ability to view the progress in real-time and assist investors during the process.”

To learn more about SS&C’s fund administration and insurance solutions, including its investment accounting and robotic process automation platforms, please visit the website.

Read all of our interviews with ILS market and reinsurance sector professionals here.