Global Fund Connections®, LLC
the art of structuring solutions for the challenges of the 21st Century
A Multi-Disciplinary FinTech Company
Global Fund Connections LLC (GFX®) is a multi-disciplinary FinTech company that designed the Global Hub & Spoke℠ System and developed the additional know-how and software necessary to implement and operate it across borders and national market segments. The Global Hub & Spoke℠ System permits asset management firms in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere to efficiently and effectively:
Use A Single Portfolio
Use a single portfolio to operate multiple funds and other collective investment products with the same investment strategy, in each case regardless of their domicile or legal structure.
Expand Across Borders
Expand across borders and national market segments by providing newly-created conventional and exchange-traded investment products with critical mass, a performance track record, greater liquidity, and without the need for seed capital.
Private Structures
Create and operate enhanced sub-advisory/private or white label structures for their distribution partners.
Sophisticated Management
Employ sophisticated portfolio management techniques to customize a portfolio’s investment strategy for a specific national market or market segment.
24-Hour Global Trading Platform
Create a single, continuous 24-hour global trading platform for index-based or actively-managed ETFs, regardless of their domicile or the exchanges on which their shares are listed, from the opening of the exchanges on the Pacific Rim on a Monday morning until the close of the New York exchanges on a Friday night.
Pooled Accounts and Pensions
Permit a pension fund or other tax-exempt investor to combine the gross dividend tax treatment and investment flexibility of a separate managed account (SMA) or pooled account with the lower expenses and reduced tracking error or greater diversification of the larger portfolio of an ETF or investment fund.
Licensing Programs
The Global Hub & Spoke System requires know-how and software in addition to the know-how and software generally used to operate conventional collective investment products in a conventional manner in a single market segment of a single jurisdiction. GFX licenses this incremental know-how and software to asset management firms and their service providers in the United States, Europe and elsewhere throughout the world.
The additional know-how gives most of the administrative areas of the design and operation of a collective investment product greater flexibility. These areas include legal, regulatory, fiscal, financial, accounting, operations, and compliance. The additional know-how will vary depending on the jurisdiction and market segment (e.g., conventional fund, exchange traded fund, banking, insurance, pension, separate account) which is involved.
“The organization of mutual funds in hub-and-spoke arrangements is an important evolution in the mutual fund industry.”
– U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission
Regulation
The staff of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reviewed the original Hub & Spoke structure and concluded that “the organization of mutual funds in hub-and-spoke arrangements is an important evolution in the mutual fund industry.”
With respect to the Global Hub & Spoke System the underlying general legal, fiscal and regulatory issues were presented to the relevant authorities in the U.S., UK, Luxembourg and Ireland. The authorities in the UK, Luxembourg and Ireland confirmed that funds organized in those jurisdictions and operating as UCITS could participate in the structure. In addition, in the context of the adoption of UCITS IV the EU’s directorate-general for the internal market and services noted that “virtual pooling structures are not prohibited by the UCITS Directive.” GFX believes that the issues raised in the U.S. have also been adequately addressed.