The firm is setting its sights on the Asian market, developing in the wake of a private equity deal a year ago.

Allfunds, a firm that provides intermediation and investment services to banks and other financial players, recently named a new team in Singapore and plans to add more staff across Asia as part of a regional build-out.

The firm, which is owned by Hellman and Friedman and GIC, is seen as aiming to become “the Amazon of the funds world”. As previously reported, it recently appointed Oliver Stewart-Malir, as Asian chief operating officer; Vinita Badlani, who is head of the funds group for Asia, and Edwin Tan, serving as new head for client services in Asia. The trio will be based in Singapore. Tan and Stewart-Malir report to Alexis Fosler, regional manager for Asia at Allfunds, and Badlani reports to Borja Largo, global head of funds groups at the company.

The business-to-business group, set up in 2000 to offer fund solutions (operational, analysis and information), is now administering more than €370 billion ($425 billion) of assets; it also offers more than 64,400 funds from over 1,200 fund managers. 

The business has a team of 15 people in the Singapore office. “We intend to grow significantly by the end of this year,” a spokesperson told this publication.

An important event for this business was its sale by its founders, Santander and Intesa Sanpaolo, to private equity house Hellman and Friedman late last year. With such an entity as an owner, a push into a fast-expanding market such as Asia is to be expected. 

So far, the firm has a relatively small footprint in Asia and is more established in Europe. Allfunds has more than 605 institutional clients, including major commercial banks, private banks, insurance companies, pension funds, fund managers, financial supermarkets, international brokers, and specialist firms. Part of its business model is providing due diligence support to deal with anti-money laundering and know-your-client aspects of this business. It also provides users with fund research, whether they are global or local funds.

To some extent the rise of such businesses represents the ascent of the “open architecture” model in financial services, driven by a desire for “best-of-breed” services without conflicts of interest and the power of internet technology. 

Such businesses can earn a living by charging an ad valorem fee or a similar approach; this publication asked Allfunds for its revenue model but the firm declined to respond, citing compliance reasons.