According to the Financial Times, Fidelity International has become the first foreign fund management company to establish a back-office operation in China, which could rival the group's Indian outsourcing operations.
As an established player in the field managing $1.5 billion of assets, Fidelity hopes to use the Dalian facility to service its mutual funds and pension business in Japan, the Financial Times reported.
I don’t know that this venture will be able to provide all of Fidelity’s back-office support for this region, but I do feel that it may be able to provide a high level of support due to the strong systems, operational and linguistic skills that are not all available in India or elsewhere, said Brett Goodin, Fidelity’s Asia head, cited in the Financial Times.
The move follows Citigroup’s recent launch of a Dalian-based software and technology center to provide outsourcing services. Other fund companies are expected to follow suit, the news site reported.