April 23, 2013 - Finomial Corporation ("Finomial"), the leading Investor Services platform, and Trade Settlement Inc. ("TSI"), a leading provider of a fully automated platform for loan settlement, have entered into an agreement which will result in a strategic partnership between the two firms.
The agreement is designed to address the FATCA (Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act) obligations now mandated for the Syndicated Loan market and CLOs (Collateralized Loan Obligations).
The two firms will offer a new online system to the Syndicated Loan market that streamlines FATCA compliance; investor on-boarding; and investor due diligence processes. This is of particular interest to sponsors, trustees and administrators of CLOs; domestic and foreign private investment funds; agent banks that administer new or materially modified existing credit agreements; and all parties that buy or sell bank loans.
Finomial fully addresses the complex and detail-driven regulatory compliance requirements placed on financial institutions in their interactions with investors. The firm delivers a mission-ready platform that automates the two key tasks for FATCA compliance: on-boarding and existing account due diligence. Finomial's platform for automating investor subscriptions includes electronic W-9s and W-8s; anti-money laundering (AML); Know Your Customer (KYC); compliance with Massachusetts 201 CR-17 and Dodd-Frank for investor data privacy; and the IRS FATCA regulations, which go into effect January 1, 2014.
Meredith Moss, Founder and COO of Finomial said: "Trade Settlement provides the CLO and private loan fund market with mission-critical technologies and services designed to increase settlement efficiencies. With our agreement, TSI will continue to enhance its clients' productivity, by bringing Finomial's comprehensive and cost-effective approach to FATCA and KYC requirements. Finomial leads the investment community with a secure, cloud-based multi-party system. Finomial and TSI's new system will eliminate the repetitive and tedious paperwork flows, time delays and inaccuracy of old processing methods and investor spreadsheets used by the industry for over 80 years. We benefit not only fund sponsors, but also investors, agent banks and administratorators –and with this agreement, the syndicated loan space."
Trade Settlement Founder and CEO Pat Loret de Mola said: "We have been precursors in the loan market of more fully automated SAAS-based solutions since our inception thirteen years ago. Through our agreement with Finomial, our clients can become compliant ahead of the looming FATCA deadline. The FATCA compliance requirements are a real challenge to the members of our community, and our involvement with Finomial reflects its keen interest in uniting its technical skills with TSI's expertise in the syndicated loan market to increase operational efficiency. In a complex financial world, Finomial's system is an example of an easy to use system that covers a very complex set of databases, analytical tools, and rigorous security. It will be of great value to our industry and continue the progress toward more automated, SAAS based systems like our own Primary and Secondary trade settlement services."
