OREANDA-NEWS. March 07, 2012. BNP Paribas Securities Services (BNP Paribas) announced that it has implemented a mandate from Harvest Global Investments (Harvest) to launch an emerging market fund investing in Mongolia, making it the first global custodian to support foreign investments in this Asian frontier market, reported the press-centre of BNP Paribas.

Harvest, China's second largest asset manager with USD37 billion in assets under management, appointed BNP Paribas as global custodian, fund administrator, transfer agent and register, in support of the manager's Asian Frontier Equity Fund.

The fund went live in late 2011 and has since been investing in Mongolia. In so doing, Harvest became both the first Chinese and the first cross-border asset manager to take direct investment exposure in the country. BNP Paribas was instrumental in enabling this through the unique operating model that it created, giving Harvest direct access to the market. Using a trustee account opened at the Mongolian Securities Clearing House and Central Depository, BNP Paribas' structure ring-fences Harvest's assets thereby protecting the underlying investors.

BNP Paribas completed the due diligence process more quickly than usual, meeting with local regulators and market participants in order to establish a thorough understanding of the necessary framework for foreign investments.

Commenting on the development, Mr Choy Peng Wah, chief executive officer of Harvest Global Investments said: “Launching our Mongolia fund was a key part of our strategy and we are pleased with the work done by BNP Paribas in enabling that.

“The structure that they created was innovative enough to enable us to invest directly into the Mongolian market, with the reassurance afforded by their expertise in Asia, and robust yet flexible global custody platform.”

Lawrence Au, head of Asia-Pacific at BNP Paribas Securities Services said: “We took a collaborative approach to this challenge with Harvest, and are pleased to have played our part in animating a key element of their global growth strategy.

“Furthermore, Mongolia is an exciting frontier market whose economy is forecast to grow by eight per cent* this year, and we are pleased to be the first and currently – the only – global custodian able to offer direct access to the Mongolian market,” concluded Au, who is also a member of the bank's executive committee.

*According to the Asian Development Bank: http://www.adb.org/documents/books/ado/2011/ado2011-mon.pdf