US investment banking giant JP Morgan announced this week that it had launched a Same Day Settlement platform in Asia Pacific with leading global investment management firm BlackRock.PARA_BREAK_SENTINEL_9f8e7d6c

US investment banking giant JP Morgan announced this week that it had launched a Same Day Settlement platform in Asia Pacific with leading global investment management firm BlackRock. The Asian Same Day Settlement service is being supported by JP Morgan’s transfer agency business. This is no doubt welcome news for BlackRock’s Asia-based institutional clients who will now be able to initiate trades during Asian business hours and receive the same day use of funds. Initially the service will only be available for BlackRock’s two USD cash funds. These are: ICS Institutional US Dollar Liquidity Fund, and ICS Institutional US Treasury Fund.

Among the platform’s key features, if clients place trades before the 14:00 Hong Kong cut-off time they will benefit from earlier settlement, two pricing runs will be used daily with funds released to a client’s bank account via SWIFT and a SWIFT MT 103 message will be sent to notify clients of the incoming payment. The move to team up with JP Morgan to provide this T0 settlement service follows a decision recently to outsource BlackRock’s fund fax dealing desk to the US bank to provide its clients with greater processing efficiencies. Mark Stockley (pictured), Head of International Cash at BlackRock said that the settlement platform was intended to provide its clients with “greater flexibility”, adding that it would allow clients to “fully realize the benefits of investing in BlackRock’s Liquidity Funds”. “This is a landmark platform that will provide BlackRock’s clients with a real competitive advantage in the market,” said Euan McLeod of JP Morgan.