NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–HazelTree and Goldman Sachs Asset Management (GSAM) announced today a strategic partnership to assist hedge funds, fund administrators, managed account providers and family offices in improving their cash management. The partnership is in response to the changing regulatory environment for systemically important financial institutions (SIFIs), particularly Basel III guidelines on capital requirements and balance sheet composition.
“Because of these new requirements, banks’ desire to accept or retain short-term cash deposits on their balance sheets has become challenging for SIFIs, and many institutional investors may not be able to keep cash balances on deposit in the same way they have in the past. As more banks become 100-percent in compliance with Basel III, the pressure on hedge funds in particular to find alternatives for their cash — or face deposit limits or higher fees — will only increase,” said Stephen Casner, CEO of HazelTree. “This partnership with GSAM aims to provide a risk-managed, operationally efficient way for hedge funds to streamline their cash management through an unprecedented combination of visibility into excess cash balances across clients’ various counterparties and automated movement of that cash for easier execution.”
Instead of manual cash transfers with each counterparty, typically the most common practice today, the partnership between HazelTree, a leading Treasury Management solution provider, and GSAM will provide hedge funds, fund administrators, managed account providers and family offices with automated, rules-based “sweep” access to solutions managed by GSAM. Clients will have a comprehensive view of all cash balances across their counterparties and can set target rules to optimize those cash balances and investments through the enhanced functionality.
“As HazelTree sought ways to enhance their platform with new, industry-leading technology, we were pleased to partner with them” said James McNamara, Managing Director and Global Head of Third Party Distribution. “GSAM has a long history of managing cash for hedge funds and other institutional investors, and we believe this new relationship with HazelTree will make cash management that much easier, as certain institutions are increasingly asked to find alternative investment options for their cash balances.”