Assets under management of Moventum, a Luxembourg company acquired by Atlantic Fund Services last November, have grown by 10%, to €4.3 billion at 2015 Q1 end; Moventum is a distribution platform for financial advisors and funds.
Main growth drivers were institutional flows and investment funds’ US and European market performance.
“The decision to acquire Moventum proves to have been a very good one. Distribution platforms are undoubtedly the future of funds distribution. The interest of the market is strong and growing: we are adding several new investment fund advisors (IFAs) to the platform weekly”, commented Roman Lewszyk, President of Atlantic Fund Services in Europe and CEO at Moventum. AFS acquired Moventum from Global Portfolio Advisors and Banque de Luxembourg last November.
Atlantic hopes to see more synergies in the technology platforms between the two companies. “AFS, having a strong technology development unit, can effectively support the development of Moventum’s next-generation platform technologies”, added Mr. Lewszyk. Among nearly 320 employees of Atlantic, 40 are system developers.
The future for fund distribution platforms seems promising. The MIFID II regulation, imposing scrupulous rules for investment services and increased transparency sought after by regulators will put significant pressure on distribution of funds in Europe. Platforms, such as Moventum, can benefit by offering investors and IFAs different venues for their investments, be it direct or IFA-guided, and additional features such as compliance tools, better guided architecture, etc.
Moventum distributes funds in 140 markets globally. The company supports 1,850 financial advisors, insurance companies, fund of funds and banks located in 19 jurisdictions. Moventum has distribution agreements with 450 fund companies for over 9,000 funds.
