Specialised depositary
The organisation that holds a fund's property and controls the management company's instructions: a transaction breaching the fund's rules does not go through without its consent.
How to read the number
Separating custody from management is the unitholder's main protection: the fund's property does not belong to the management company and is outside its estate in bankruptcy.
When the metric lies
The control covers compliance with the rules, not the quality of decisions: a loss-making but permitted transaction will be executed. Against market risk this arrangement protects nothing.
Also known as: fund depositary controller