In this issue

• ACSA Awards member event
• ACSA new members
• New and re-focused working groups
• ACSA Thought Leadership Series
• ACSA regulatory submissions – Sanctions and tokenisation
• Global perspective – ISSA looking to the future
• In Focus – Douglas McMeekin (NAB)
  

Introduction

It was great to get ACSA members together in March to celebrate our ACSA Award winners, and in this edition of the ACSA industry wrap we share some insights from the event.

We are also excited to welcome some new members to ACSA and our new Working Groups are getting started, we have an update on the ACSA Thought Leadership Series, and some local and global initiatives around the future of our industry, our digital and crypto asset submission, and submission on sanction regulations.

And we are In Focus with Douglas McMeekin from NAB Asset Servicing, one of our recent ACSA award winners.

ACSA Celebration of award winners

We recognised and celebrated the outstanding individual contributions of Marsha Lee, Director Client Relationship Management at Calastone and Douglas McMeekin, Associate Director Tax Policy and Services at NAB Asset Serving, at our first members event for 2023.

In a new first for ACSA, the event was run simultaneously in Sydney and Melbourne, and we thank JP Morgan for providing ACSA with meeting rooms, video connection and networking areas. With over 100 people in attendance across both locations it was a great success.

The event allowed for our award winners to be recognised and for ACSA members to catch up with peers and colleagues from across the industry. A great opportunity to reconnect with the industry after the past few years of virtual events.

. 

New ACSA Members

We have recently welcomed two new associate members to ACSA. ACSA’s associate members come from across the industry including investment administration, consulting services, registry services and technology partners and are an important part of our industry ecosystem.

This month we welcome Artega Investment Administration and Automic Group as ACSA associate members. We look forward to their contributions in our working groups promoting efficiency and best practice across the industry.

Artega Investment Administration provides technology-led investment administration, registry and custody services offering front, middle and back-office services to investment managers and asset owners in Australia and Asia. Born out of the Challenger and Fidante businesses, and partnering with Simcorp, Artega has an operation with 140 staff located in Sydney and London. As at December 2022, the business administers the investment assets for 15 clients with a total funds under administration of over $95 billion dollars. Artgea has experience in both public and private markets and across complex asset types.

Automic Group founded in 2016, provides integrated share and fund registry, board management, governance, and investor relations solutions. Automic successfully manages large and small, listed companies and unlisted funds, absorbing complexity at scale.

Their proprietary technology and a complementary suite of professional services make it easier for companies and managed funds to do business.

Today, over 1,200+ ASX listed and unlisted organisations trust Automic to manage their fund and share registries.

New and re-focussed working groups

Further to our prior update, ACSA has made some important changes to our working groups for 2023.

The ACSA Working Groups represent opportunity for ACSA members to participate in and lead the industry discussions on efficiency, best practice, regulatory change and industry development.

New and re-focused working groups are below. If you’re interested in joining one of these working groups, please contact admin@acsa.com.au.

Regulatory Compliance Regulatory Implementation and Data

This recognises the importance of ACSA remaining focused on both the implications of regulation on our members licensing obligations but also the need to contribute to the discussion on the impacts of regulatory change on members clients and members products and services.

Digital Assets and Crypto

Increasing focus on the need and industry drive for investor protections in this innovative segment of the market by moving from a taskforce to a working group.

Next Generation Leaders

Recognition of the importance of the Next Generation of Leaders in our industry through the formation of a new working group to engage and embrace those new to the industry on how they achieve their career aspirations and help ACSA evolve for future generations of industry participants.

These new working groups operate alongside the existing ACSA working groups:

Operations

Focussed primarily on safekeeping and securities services activities such as settlement, corporate actions, proxy voting and income collection. The working group reacts to changes to market rules and regulation, including engaging with the ASX regarding CHESS replacement. A Proxy Sub-Working Group has been recently activated to look at increasing market efficiency for proxy voting.

Tax

Maintaining industry focus on how ACSA members help clients achieve their tax reporting requirements. The working groups reacts to and advocates for tax changes and guidelines that affect ACSA members and their clients. A new Sub-Working Group focused on Certificates of residency (CORs) has recently been enacted.

Managed Funds

Targeting inefficiencies in managed fund custody, settlement, and reporting. The working group is defining an agenda to create market wide improvements to managed fund processes and delivery of best practice outcomes

Members and Services

Underpins the growth and development of ACSA members. This includes the ACSA Thought Leadership webinar series, the ACSA Industry Wrap, ACSA members events, and industry development.

If you’re interested in joining any of the ACSA working groups, please contact admin@acsa.com.au.

ACSA Thought Leadership Series

ACSA’s Thought Leadership Series continued in March with SWIFT discussing Smarter Securities to transform securities flows.

In this webinar, Swift shared how it is collaborating with the securities industry to enable smarter securities transactions focusing on delivering end-to-end transaction tracking for securities settlement transactions while exploring the potential of tokenised assets. If you missed the webinar you can access the recording here.

Our next edition of the ACSA Thought Leadership Series will focus on T+1. The US and Canadian markets are moving to T+1 settlement in May 2024, the window for preparations is getting narrower. Other markets, like India, have already made the change.

The implementation of T+1 is likely to have major ramifications across the industry for both buy and sell side institutions, as it will force market participants into making material adjustments to their existing operating models and underlying technology systems. And what is the plan for Australia.

ACSA’s Thought Leadership Series will look at what is happening with T+1 globally, what the impacts have been in the US implementation and what plans are there for Australia. The Webinar will include insights from DTCC, Citi Securities Services and the ASX.

You can register for the T+1 webinar here.

ACSA Regulatory Submissions – Sanctions and Tokenisation

The government is committed to improving the way Australia’s regulatory system manages crypto assets – to provide greater protections for consumers and keep up with technological developments. The Government’s announced Token Mapping as a foundational step in their multistage reform agenda will implement appropriate regulatory settings and support innovation.

Token mapping plays a critical role in understanding the crypto ecosystem and ensuring a consistent and fair approach to the regulation of crypto assets in Australia. ACSA’s response to the review can be found here.




DFAT is undertaking a legislative review of the Autonomous Sanctions Regulations 2011, ahead of their sunsetting (automatic expiry) on 1 April 2024. The review, led by the Australian Sanctions Office (ASO). The Autonomous Sanctions Framework was intentionally designed to allow Australia to apply sanctions measures efficiently, effectively, and with flexibility, in response to situations of international concern. Australia has imposed autonomous sanctions with respect to eight countries. ACSA’s response to the review can be found here.

Global Perspective – Corporate Actions Data Sourcing

In ISSA recently announced the creation of four new Working Groups in their quarterly newsletter.

Custody Risks 2023. The ISSA 2017 seminal paper is the most downloaded in ISSA’s history and is a key basis for learning about the Securities Services industry. Changing regulation, products, and technology has reinforced the need for a review to update the 2017 paper. It will leverage the Digital Asset Custody and Cyber papers and the aim is for this to be a focused review and finished within 2023.

Digital Identity and Onboarding. DI&O is recognized as a substantial problem by the Members. As technology has advanced is there a way for ISSA Members to leverage these changes to solve the problem within institutional client onboarding? There is an understanding that many KYC and onboarding experts sit in cross-functional or shared services groups and not in Securities Services and we would ask Members to seek them out and get these experts to join the group.

Future of Securities Services 2023. The ISSA 2020 FSS Paper made predictions about how the Securities Services would change in the next 5- 10 years. There is a need to validate whether the predictions have occurred, are visible, or are still on the horizon, and whether different forces and themes have overtaken the original predictions. The original paper was written by Oliver Wyman and the ISSA Board firms.

T+1 Impacts. T+1 is a trend which is being investigated across the globe and in some countries either already implemented or planned to be. The stated benefits of T+1 are mainly about counterparty risk, margin requirements, funding costs and innovation. On the other hand, such move would imply significant challenges especially on post-trade processes as the settlement cycle would be reduced with increased pressure notably on matching, liquidity, and cash management. The WG aims to provide in-depth analysis on the impacts and possible mitigating actions that can be taken by investors and their securities servicers especially in the context of nondomestic investors.

The ISSA quarterly newsletter can be found here.

In Focus – Douglas McMeekin

Douglas is head of the Policy Services team for NAS, Deputy Chair of the ACSA tax working group and Chair of the ACSA Fund Tax data sub group. At NAS, Douglas is responsible for setting the accounting and tax policies for clients, change management of client delivery templates, and compliance with various regulatory obligations.

Douglas joined in NAS in 2018. Prior to NAS, Douglas worked at an Australian based Life Insurance and financial services company, various banks in UK and a big four chartered accounting firm, with a particular focus of the taxation aspects relating to Life insurance, superannuation and corporate.

Quick fire five
Coffee or Tea? Coffee
Cocktail or Wine? Wine
Beach or Mountains? Beach
Cheese or Chocolate? Cheese
Cats or Dogs? I like all animals.. In a pinch – cats because that’s all we have at the moment
When are you most productive – morning or evening? Morning

How did you end up working in investor services and in your present role?

Most of my career has been spent working in financial services – Life Insurers, Superannuation funds, Wealth management, both in Australia and in UK, always with a tax focus. An opportunity came up to head the Tax policy team at NAS 5 years ago and I took it.

What advice would you give your 21 year old self?

Don’t be too hard on yourself. Others may seem more confident, successful, experienced – however if you put the hard work in – you’ll get there! Also, be patient and keep following the Hawks (AFL team), another premiership dynasty awaits!

How do you motivate yourself and your team?

The work we do helps to ensure the integrity of Australia’s superannuation system and funds management industry. Ordinary Australians rely on us to get it right, so they can enjoy their superannuation and investments and get on with their lives.

What advice would you give someone beginning their career in finance/ custody - who might end up doing your job in the future?

Find an area that you’re passionate in, study it, gain your qualifications. Once you’ve started your role, always try to understand the bigger picture, challenge wherever possible, think strategically. If you get involved in some of ACSA’s working groups, and actually contribute, I think you will be well on the way to achieving this.


How did you get involved in ACSA and how has ACSA help in your career?

When I started at NAS I got in touch with the chair of the tax working group and she sent me an invite to the meetings straight away – it was as simple as that! ACSA has been great for me – you get to meet a diverse mix of people and learn from them, and you also get to discuss issues that affect the industry as they arise, and hopefully come up with workable solutions. I have found that experience I have gained and the issues I have been working on through my involvement with ACSA is of great interest to my work colleagues and our clients.