Milestone Group is on a hiring drive in its new London office, after its pControl fund processing platform snared a lucrative global contract with JPMorgan Worldwide Securities Services (JPM WSS).
pControl will supply all of the securities-level pricing validation across the JPM WSS European network initially, and will strike prices for all fund-of-funds. It will also automate the cash allocation order management and unitised order management which stand behind end-investor applications and redemptions. Milestone chief executive Geoff Hodge said the software would be progressively rolled out to much of JPM WSS’ global network, which has $11.5 trillion under custody. The Australian software company only set up its London office in July, but Hodge said it was benefiting from “an acceleration into more complex fund-of-fund structures” among European investors. As the UK and Europe developed a more Australian or US-style appetite for wraps and multimanager platforms, Hodge said the scalability of legacy unit pricing systems, which still relied on manual spreadsheet entry, was being challenged. Hodge said Milestone had just moved into larger premises in London’s Lombard Street, and would hire at least two new support people to complement the two already there.
The brunt of losses from the LA wildfires are expected to be borne by primary insurers and high-risk reinsurance programs, but super funds are nevertheless closely monitoring the possible impact of the fires on catastrophe bond and insurance-linked securities exposures.
Simon HoyleJanuary 17, 2025
