Northern Trust has created a platform from which investment managers can launch tax-transparent cross-border UCITS funds.

The Northern Trust Common Contractual Fund allows investment managers to offer proprietary investment strategies in a cross-border fund vehicle, which is designed to appeal to large institutional investors.

The Irish-domiciled UCITS fund was established under the European Union’s ‘Undertaking for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities’ directive.

“This platform will help investment managers gain access to the European market through a UCITS fund that also protects the tax status of the underlying institutional investors,” commented Serge Boccassini, senior vice president, Global Asset Servicing Product and Strategy at Northern Trust. “Our new fund platform represents another cross-border pooling innovation by Northern Trust and provides an option for fund managers to distribute products to the institutional market on a cross-border basis in a timely and cost effective manner.”

Investment managers can establish sub-funds with distinct portfolios of assets, investment guidelines, fund features, and investors. Northern Trust will provide global custody, fund administration, investor-level tax services and management company services to the CCF and the underlying sub-funds.

As a tax-transparent vehicle in many investment markets and investor jurisdictions, the CCF could also allow institutional investors to invest on a tax efficient basis, benefiting from treaty arrangements in place between their home jurisdiction and the country of investment.

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