Custody & Nominee

We receive and process investor application forms, AML and other investor-specific documentation. This can be done either using paper or PDF forms or via Mainspring’s online application form that is tailored for each fund and/or fund manager. Investor’s monies are received and held in client accounts, which can be specific to the manager and we report all cash receipts to the manager via a daily update that shows the onboarding status of new investors.

Mainspring provides custody for the investors’ assets and holds their cash in our client accounts (which can be either onshore or offshore). We perform daily reconciliations throughout the life of the investment, ensuring all receipts, transactions, fees, distributions, dividends and interest are recorded and allocated to individual investors. We report monthly to the FCA on the client assets and monies, and comply with other regulatory requirements, that we hold on behalf of investors.

Mainspring Nominees Limited is our FCA authorised and regulated firm and through it, the nominee companies such as MNL Nominees Limited holds the legal title to the assets in the investee companies on behalf of the investors. Named, bespoke nominee companies are available on request.

We arrange the trade and settlement of investments and, further to the manager’s instructions, sign the investment documentation on behalf of the nominee company, which is the legal shareholder. We process daily any payments for investments, distributions, expenses or fees as instructed by the manager.

We provide a secure online portal for investors as well as for their IFAs or advisers, where they can view their personal reports, such as valuations, contract notes, tax statements and EIS3 certificates. Furthermore, investors can see their investment records using interactive dashboards. It is also possible to upload portfolio company information for investors to view online.

Manager level dashboards are available to provide fund-level oversight and analysis. In addition, a fund manager can have access to a menu of reports to access detailed analysis of the investments, transactions, asset holdings and cash movements. These can be run at any point for any period.

Our industry-leading IT infrastructure means we capture all transactional and payment information at the investor and the sub-account level so each subscription can be held and reported on separately. This means we can provide high-quality personalised reporting at different levels for the investors, the fund manager, and for the IFAs/advisers who can access reporting for multiple investors in one place.

Mainspring can provide a variety of additional services to allow managers to extract more value from the investment data. These are bespoke and Mainspring will seek to adapt its service to the managers’ needs.

Example services include:

• Custom valuation statements
• Portfolio company updates
• Enhanced EIS reporting
• Deployment reporting
• Customised dashboards
• Accrued fee management
• Cash management

Mainspring is able to support sub-custody for companies listed on the UK or key international stock markets. For example, this means that we can support investments in AIM-listed companies which are EIS or BPR qualifying and we can arrange the transactions and hold the stock via a sub-custody arrangement. Separately, Mainspring is able to provide custody services for private equity or venture funds that hold listed assets.