Institutional investors embrace tax-transparent vehicles to facilitate economies of scale, efficiency and improved performance

LONDON, March 4, 2010 — BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, the global leader in securities servicing, has seen assets under administration serviced on its cross-border pooling platform surpass EUR100 billion [US$137 billion].

BNY Mellon provides full-service custody, tax, and fund administration services to multinational plan sponsors and fund managers, who manage tax-transparent pooled funds invested globally.

There are today a range of tax-transparent cross-border pooling vehicles designed to allow multiple investors to co-invest their assets to achieve economies of scale while still preserving their beneficial tax treaty status. Tax-transparent vehicles serviced by BNY Mellon include Luxembourg's Fonds Commun de Placement (FCP), the Irish Common Contractual Fund (CCF), and in the Netherlands Fonds voor Gemene Rekening (FvGR).

In today's market environment, tax exempt investors are keenly aware of the liquidity and performance implications that can arise from not reclaiming withholding taxes – for example, US dividends are subject to a 30% withholding tax when treaty exemption is not claimed.

Kerry White, Managing Director, Global Product at BNY Mellon Asset Servicing, said: "We have been very encouraged by the general acceptance and growth of tax transparent pooling vehicles across the investment community in recent years. We have built a robust and scalable platform that can handle the many nuances and complexities of these sophisticated programmes, and so are well positioned to maintain our leadership position in this burgeoning market.

"BNY Mellon has a long track-record in assisting multinational plan sponsors and global financial institutions, and our unique asset pooling capabilities for tax transparent fund structures allows clients to provide full accounting details – both balance sheet and P&L – to underlying participants, or groups of participants, if so desired."

BNY Mellon Asset Servicing offers clients worldwide a broad spectrum of specialised asset servicing capabilities, including custody and fund services, securities lending, performance and analytics, and execution services.

BNY Mellon is the corporate brand of The Bank of New York Mellon Corporation. BNY Mellon is a global financial services company focused on helping clients manage and service their financial assets, operating in 34 countries and serving more than 100 markets.  BNY Mellon is a leading provider of financial services for institutions, corporations and high-net-worth individuals, providing superior asset management and wealth management, asset servicing, issuer services, clearing services and treasury services through a worldwide client-focused team.  It has $22.3 trillion in assets under custody and administration, $1.1 trillion in assets under management, services $12 trillion in outstanding debt and processes global payments averaging $1.6 trillion per day.  Additional information is available at www.bnymellon.com.

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