GERMANY – Allianz’s Deutscher Investment Trust says it wants to position its new Fondsdepot subsidiary as an independent administrative centre for the asset management industry.

“Fondsdepot Bank wants to be positioned long-term - building on this expertise at practically all levels of the value chain of portfolio management - as an independent administrative centre in the asset management industry,” DIT said in a statement.

DIT said the new arm has started business following approval by the German financial supervisory authority Bafin.

“The company acts as handling platform for brokers and investment companies, and will in future be in a position to manage ADAM's own funds and funds of third-party providers,” it added, referring to Allianz Dresdner Asset Management.

"We aim to offer to other fund companies too our longstanding experience in servicing diverse sales channels and product providers, a high grade of efficiency, a good level of quality and our know-how in migration implementation in the area of mutual fund custody business,” said Claus Stickler, chairman of the new company's management board.

"We regard ourselves as a true all-round provider for outsourcing fund administration services and services for sales platforms,” Stickler said.

“Our proven experience in the migration of customer and brokerage data in a new administrative environment should make us an economically interesting alternative for many investment companies operating in Germany.”

The unit is already managing more than 1.5 million portfolios.