Fund oversight and governance provider INDOS Financial, now part of JTC Group, has appointed Clay Dupuy to lead its expanding outsourced Anti-Money Laundering (AML) Officer team. Clay will operate from INDOS’s Ireland offices in Enniscorthy (Co. Wexford) and will be responsible for the teams which provide AML Officers to funds domiciled in the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Luxembourg.

A graduate of the University of Florida, and of the Business Schools of the Universities of Dublin and Manchester, Clay was an AML specialist at BNY Mellon Fund Services (Ireland) until June 2019. He joins INDOS Financial from consultants KB Associates where he acted as Money Laundering Reporting Officer to a broad range of investment funds.

“Focus on anti-money laundering has grown rapidly over recent years with new and evolving regulations. The demand for expert and committed individuals to enable investment managers and funds comply with the requirements and appropriately manage their AML risk is significant,” said INDOS Financial CEO, Bill Prew. “INDOS is therefore delighted to be able to announce the appointment of Clay Dupuy whose extensive experience in this field will prove of immeasurable value to our investment management clients,” he added.

The INDOS outsourced AML officer operation provides active hands-on support and oversight to fund managers and their funds and supports investment funds with over $10 billion of assets.

“I am excited to have been selected to head this key service line within INDOS,” said Clay. “Ensuring compliance with anti-money laundering regulations is a significant and growing area of focus within the global investment industry, and I look forward to making my contribution to ensuring efficient and effective support to the increasing number of INDOS clients who are facing this challenge.”

About INDOS Financial

Founded in 2012, INDOS has grown organically, developing solutions recognised as industry-leading within the fund oversight and depositary service space. As of June 2021, client assets under depositary oversight represented $35 billion and a further $10bn which form part of the INDOS MLRO (Money Laundering Reporting Officer) service clients. INDOS also provides a range of Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) services for funds. INDOS Financial was recently acquired by JTC plc, a publicly listed, global professional services business providing fund, corporate and private client services.

About JTC

JTC is a publicly listed, global professional services business with deep expertise in fund, corporate and private client services.

Every JTC person is an owner of the business and this fundamental part of our culture aligns us with the best interests of all of our stakeholders.

Our purpose is to maximise potential and our success is built on service excellence, long-term relationships and technology capabilities that drive efficiency and add value.

For more information visit: www.jtcgroup.com

For further information or to contact INDOS Financial:  Simon Rostron   [email protected]

31 May 2021 – Irish Funds, the voice of the funds and asset management industry in Ireland, has announced it has achieved the Carbon Footprint Standard showcasing its commitment to manage its carbon footprint and achieve carbon neutrality.

The process, which will be undertaken annually, includes an assessment of Irish Funds carbon emissions and energy use and provides a roadmap to track and reduce carbon emissions ‘at source’ as much as possible and to compensate for unavoidable emissions – via carbon offsetting.

Irish Funds offset 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the total amount emitted by the organisation during the 2020 calendar, by supporting forest conservation projects led by the Gold Standard for the Global Goals. This a globally recognised standard to quantify, certify and maximise the contributions of climate and development initiatives toward climate change mitigation and the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Pat Lardner, CEO of Irish Funds commented: “As an industry, we have pledged to take action to mitigate climate change risk through sustainable finance. To provide true leadership we must also work to embed sustainability in our own operations and everyday lives. This means measuring our impact and taking action to reduce or offset our carbon footprint. These small actions add up and we are proud to work with INDOS Financial and other innovators across our network to support change towards a more sustainable environment.”

Victoria Gillespie, Head of ESG, INDOS Financial, who advised Irish Funds through the process, added: INDOS Financial established operations in Ireland in 2013 and has valued the support and guidance provided by the Irish Funds team for many years. It was therefore a pleasure to lend our ESG experience to support Irish Funds through the carbon neutral process and help them achieve this important goal. It is clear the investment industry in Ireland is increasingly embracing sustainability and ESG more broadly and we expect more firms will follow Irish Funds’ lead and become carbon neutral organisations.

The carbon neutral achievement was announced at the Irish Funds Annual Conference last week titled: “Accelerated Transformation – disruption and opportunity” which included a panel discussion on ESG – from green shoots to full bloom, highlighting the evolution of ESG as Ireland continues to build on its highly successful funds and investment management sector to become a global center of excellence for sustainable investment funds. The participants for the panel included Dr Tara Shine from Change by Degrees, Sean MacHale from the Bank of Ireland, Joanne McEnteggert from IQ EQ and Anna Driggs from ICI Global.

The net zero carbon milestone also builds on the recently launched industry Green Team Network (GTN) initiative to facilitate knowledge and collaboration on sustainability pledges and goals across fund and asset management companies in Ireland. The GTN team were the successful winners of the Grant Thornton Irish Funds Sustainathon 2020 challenge.

-Ends-

Notes to Editor

Irish Funds was guided throughout the carbon neutral process by INDOS Financial. its overall carbon footprint for the period 1st January 2020 to 31st December 2020 was independently assessed by Carbon Footprint Ltd. The calculation uses the 2020 emission factors developed by the UK Government Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the Department for Business, Environment & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) for reporting emissions.

Homeworking emissions followed methodology published by EcoAct whitepaper. The carbon footprint assessment includes the company’s scope 1 and 2 emissions, as well as flights and home-working emissions from scope 3 which includes – Electricity consumption, Air travel and Homeworking.

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Hume Brophy

Brandon Bhatti – [email protected]

About Irish Funds

The Irish Funds Industry Association (Irish Funds) is the voice of the funds and asset management industry in Ireland. Founded in 1991, Irish Funds represents fund managers, depositaries, administrators, transfer agents, professional advisory firms and other specialist firms involved in the international fund services industry in Ireland.

Irish Funds’ more than 150 members service or manage in excess of 14,000 funds with a net asset value of €5.7 trillion. Irish Funds objective is the voice of the funds & asset management industry in Ireland, ensuring Ireland is the premier location to enable and support global investing through its reputation for trust, capability and innovation.

For further information about Irish Funds, please visit www.irishfunds.ie

About INDOS Financial

Founded in 2012, INDOS Financial has grown organically, developing solutions recognised as industry-leading within the fund oversight and depositary service space. INDOS is based in the UK and Co. Wexford, Ireland. Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) services for the investment management industry funds have been a core focus for the firm since 2019 and INDOS has supported several managers and industry bodies such as Irish Funds to become Carbon Neutral.  INDOS became a carbon neutral organisation in 2019 and in 2020 was recognised as a carbon reduced firm. INDOS also provides a range of independent depositary and AML officer services to investment funds. INDOS recently announced that it has been acquired by JTC plc, the global provider of fund, corporate and private client services. For further information about INDOS Financial and JTC plc, please visit www.indosgroup.com and www.jtcgroup.com.

Following regulatory approval from the FCA, JTC has today completed the acquisition of INDOS Financial, as announced in February 2021.

INDOS Financial builds on JTC’s well-established fund services capabilities and will allow the Group to offer enhanced governance and technical expertise to clients, utilising INDOS Financial’s position as an industry-leading specialist in the provision of independent fund oversight services, including Depositary, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG), Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Cayman Islands Private Funds.

The acquisition forms part of JTC’s ongoing strategy of blending organic growth of the core business with disciplined inorganic growth that is governed by clear acquisition criteria and supported by a strong track record of successful integration.

The INDOS Financial brand will be retained and used to demonstrate the integrity and independence of its Depositary services under the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (AIFMD). More than 50 employees, including INDOS Financial founder and CEO Bill Prew and his senior management team, have become part of JTC’s Institutional Client Services (ICS) Division, with INDOS Financial becoming a JTC Group company.

Nigel Le Quesne, CEO of JTC, said:

“We are delighted to officially welcome our new INDOS Financial colleagues to JTC today. INDOS is an important strategic addition to JTC underpinned by a mix of deep expertise, commitment to service excellence and a proven ability to innovate and grow the business. We are looking forward to realising the benefits that this acquisition will bring to our clients in the near future and to providing INDOS clients with an even richer suite of global services and the full backing of the JTC Group.”

Fourth successive year of Type II SOC1/ ISAE 3402 certification

Leading independent AIFMD depositary, INDOS Financial Limited (“INDOS”), is pleased to announce it has received a Service Organization Control 1 (“SOC 1”) / ISAE 3402 Type II controls assurance report from an independent audit firm for the fourth successive year.

The examination, in respect of the depositary processes and controls within INDOS and its Irish subsidiary INDOS Financial (Ireland) Limited, resulted in the issue of an unqualified opinion and zero exceptions from the independent audit firm, BDO LLP.

The report was prepared in accordance with the standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (“AICPA”) in SSAE18 (SOC1) and ISAE3402 issued by the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (“IAASB”) of the International Federation of Accountants (“IFAC”).

A Type II report not only includes a controls description, but also detailed testing of an organisation’s controls over a minimum operating period.

The scope of the report covers INDOS’ operations that provide independent depositary services to 145 alternative investment funds (spanning hedge, private equity, real estate, debt, renewables and infrastructure funds), with underlying assets exceeding $35 billion.

Bill Prew, CEO of INDOS, commented “One of the most effective ways a firm can communicate information about the robustness of its control environment is through an independent service auditor’s report.  The completion of our fourth annual SOC 1/ ISAE3402 examination demonstrates our strong focus on the effective operation of internal controls and procedures. Given the important oversight role played by the depositary in a fund’s governance structure, we recognise the importance of making this annual investment. We remain one of the few depositaries to provide such a report to clients.”

Varenne Capital Partners, a leading global alternative investment manager, has chosen to leverage a partnership between its depositary, INDOS Financial, and fintech risk firm Clarus Risk, to provide a highly efficient fintech Liquidity Stress-Testing solution.

Following new ESMA liquidity stress test guidelines which came into force on September 30^th 2020, this collaboration enables independent stress-testing and enhanced liquidity risk oversight while utilising connectivity now established between INDOS Financial and Clarus Risk to streamline the risk governance process.

Under the new operating model, Clarus Risk will source fund asset and liability data from INDOS Financial to generate liquidity risk metrics via its RiskMonitor® Liquidity solution which incorporates analysis of investor behaviour as well as asset risk scenarios to provide a comprehensive asset and liability appraisal in a broad and investor friendly format.

David Mellul, Managing Director of Varenne commented, “Strong risk management and corporate governance are key pillars of our responsible investment policy and our chosen independent depositary and risk service providers are now able to reinforce our risk oversight and transparency through their collaboration and the provision of regular liquidity stress testing”.

Bill Prew, CEO of INDOS Financial added “The new ESMA liquidity stress testing guidelines came into effect at a challenging time for the funds industry due to the on-going impact of COVID-19 on operations and financial markets.  Through this partnership with Clarus Risk, INDOS is now able to facilitate independent liquidity stress testing for its clients in an efficient way, reducing their operational burden and enabling them to demonstrate compliance with the new requirements”.

Max Hilton, Managing Director of Clarus Risk added “The ESMA guidelines are principal based which brings subjectivity and complexity to the implementation of an appropriate solution. This fits well with our RiskMonitor® platform which is designed to facilitate client and fund specific risk reporting that aligns with the risk tolerance and underlying asset mix of each fund. This partnership with INDOS brings new operational efficiencies to the benefit of our clients”.

About Varenne Capital Partners:

Varenne Capital Partners is a process-driven, global investment manager whose purpose is to deliver superior long-term returns with the minimum necessary risk-taking. Varenne Capital Partners strives to achieve this goal by combining complementary investment frameworks – Long Equity, Short Equity, Merger Arbitrage and Tail Risk Hedging – in a single strategy. Varenne Capital Partners is based in Paris, France, where it was founded by its current management team in 2003. It operated as an advisor to VEGA Finance – private banking unit of the CDC/CE Group – – between 2003 and 2006 before establishing itself as an independent investment manager thereafter.

About INDOS Financial:

Founded in 2012, INDOS Financial has grown organically, developing solutions recognised as industry-leading within the fund oversight and depositary service space. As of December 2020, client assets under oversight had grown past $35 billion. INDOS also provides a range of independent AML and Environmental, Social, Governance (ESG) services for funds. INDOS recently announced that it has been acquired (subject to FCA regulatory approval) by JTC plc, the global provider of fund, corporate and private client services.

About Clarus Risk:

Clarus Risk was formed in 2011 to provide independent, first-class Managed Software as a Service (MSaaS) fintech solutions for the investment fiduciary marketplace. Clarus Risk’s award-winning risk analytics and reporting technology generates fully customisable risk and regulatory risk reporting solutions.