\n As private banks, multi-family offices, fund managers and investment platforms look for faster, more cost-efficient ways to bring investment ideas to market, actively managed certificates are gaining attention as a flexible alternative to traditional fund structures. For Sean Green, Head of Distribution at Kyros Capital, the opportunity rests on a simple proposition: AMCs can give managers and advisers a fund-like vehicle, daily NAV, bankable access, and broad asset flexibility without the time, cost, and administrative drag often associated with launching a conventional fund.\n <\/p>\n
Key Takeaways<\/p>\n
\n\tAMCs offer a faster route to market: Sean says Kyros Capital can help establish an actively managed certificate in around two weeks, compared with the three, six, or even nine months often required to launch traditional fund structures.
\n\tCost efficiency is a central advantage: Cost efficiency is a central advantage: Kyros does not charge upfront setup or issuance fees. Instead, the firm charges a small annual maintenance fee, which includes daily NAV calculation, audit, financial statements and a Bloomberg ticker.
\n\tThe structure is designed to be bankable: Each AMC comes with a clearable ISIN and can be held through private bank accounts or brokerage accounts, allowing investors to access strategies in a way that is closer to buying a bond or listed security than subscribing into a conventional fund with long subscription documents which can be very time consuming to complete.
\n\tAsset flexibility is broad: Kyros can structure AMCs around listed shares, options, futures, private equity, real estate, crypto assets, pre-IPO opportunities, and other assets that can be held within a fund framework.
\n\tThe Luxembourg infrastructure is a differentiator: Kyros arranges AMCs through a Luxembourg fund infrastructure, with each sub-fund acting as issuer and assets legally ring-fenced under European law. Sean contrasts this with bank-issued AMC models, where issuer risk can sit on the bank balance sheet.
\n\tMulti-family offices are a natural client base: AMCs can help multi-family offices package private equity, pre-IPO, or other investment opportunities for multiple clients without collecting multiple subscription agreements and KYCs at the underlying transaction level.
\n\tAsia still requires education: AMCs are well understood in Switzerland, and Europe in general, where the structure originated within the banking industry, but remain less familiar in Asia. Kyros sees market education as one of its central priorities.
\n\tTechnology supports daily transparency: Kyros has built a NAV calculation tool that connects to trading platforms, pulls data, calculates fees, and publishes NAVs into Bloomberg on a daily basis.
\n\tThe future is consolidated and bankable: Sean expects Asian investors to increasingly prefer structures that sit inside their private bank accounts, rather than holding multiple offshore funds and disconnected vehicles across jurisdictions.
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Kyros Capital was founded three years ago and is headquartered in Singapore. The firm was established by Alessandro Ginestra, who previously led Leonteq in Hong Kong, after identifying what he viewed as a gap in the market: the need for an issuer of off-balance-sheet structures, with no issuer risk, that could broaden the range of asset classes capable of being held within an AMC.<\/p>\n
For Sean Green, the logic behind the business is straightforward. Many managers and advisers have investment ideas, strategies, or transaction opportunities they want to take to clients, but the process of setting up a conventional fund can be slow, expensive, and administratively heavy. Kyros aims to remove much of that friction by arranging AMCs that can be created quickly, held through private bank infrastructure, and managed with daily transparency.<\/p>\n
At its simplest, Sean describes an AMC as a certificate that operates in a fund-like way. It allows an investment strategy, transaction, or basket of assets to be packaged into a clearable instrument with an ISIN, a daily NAV, Bloomberg pricing, and bank custody compatibility.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf people are not familiar with AMCs, they are actively managed certificates, which are essentially certificates in the form of a fund,\u201d he explains. \u201cYou can set up a fund-like vehicle in two weeks. There are no upfront costs, you have a daily NAV, pricing is listed on Bloomberg, and the AMC comes with a clearable ISIN.\u201d That structure also makes the AMC bankable, allowing private banks or brokerage accounts to custody the AMC and retain, or potentially increase, their AUM base.<\/p>\n
From Fund Drag to Faster Market Access<\/p>\n
Sean sees speed as one of the clearest advantages of the AMC structure. Traditional fund launches can involve legal counsel, administrators, auditors, tax advisers, regulatory structuring, banking arrangements, and multiple rounds of documentation. That can make sense for some strategies, particularly where scale, jurisdiction, investor base, or regulatory requirements demand a full fund structure. But for many investment ideas, the time and cost can be disproportionate.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am a fund manager and I want to set up a fund, it could take three, six, or nine months to get to market,\u201d he says. \u201cI then have to find a lawyer, pay maybe USD100,000 upfront, find a fund administrator, find an auditor, get tax advice, and go through the whole process.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyros\u2019 value proposition is that much of that infrastructure is already in place. The firm can arrange the AMC setup, open the relevant bank account, set up the trading account, and prepare the vehicle to receive subscriptions in around two to three weeks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do that in two weeks,\u201d Sean says. \u201cYou have the whole infrastructure set up, you have a cash account with a bank, you have the trading account, and everything is ready to go.\u201d<\/p>\n
That speed is particularly relevant where timing matters. Sean points to pre-IPO opportunities, private equity transactions, and market-driven strategies as examples of situations where a manager or multi-family office may not be able to wait several months for a fund launch.<\/p>\n
A Fund-Like Structure Without the Conventional Fund Burden<\/p>\n
AMCs originated in the Swiss banking industry around 20 years ago, and Sean says most market participants in Switzerland are familiar with the concept. Asia, by contrast, is still at an earlier stage of adoption.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Switzerland, pretty much everyone has heard of AMCs,\u201d he says. \u201cIn Asia, there is still a lot of education that needs to be done. Most people we meet have never heard of an AMC, unless they have some Swiss angle or have worked at a Swiss private bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyros\u2019 model differs from the traditional bank-issued AMC structure. In a bank-issued model, Sean says investors can be exposed to issuer risk because the note is issued from the bank\u2019s balance sheet. Kyros instead uses a Luxembourg fund infrastructure, where each sub-fund acts as the issuer of the AMC.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a bank, you always have issuer risk,\u201d he says. \u201cIf a bank were to go bankrupt, technically you could lose your assets because the note is issued off the bank balance sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyros\u2019 structure is designed to address that concern. Each AMC is issued from a sub-fund, and the assets are legally ring-fenced under European law. Sean says this creates separation between each AMC and also between the AMC assets and Kyros itself.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWith us, each sub-fund acts as an issuer, and all the assets are legally ring-fenced under European law,\u201d he explains. \u201cIf we have 100 AMCs, all 100 are ring-fenced from each other, and they are also ring-fenced from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
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That ring-fencing is an important part of how Kyros positions itself against more conventional AMC issuance models. For wealth managers and family offices considering client-facing investment structures, legal segregation, custody, operational integrity, and issuer risk are not secondary issues. They are central to whether the structure can be used with confidence.<\/p>\n
Broad Asset Flexibility<\/p>\n
Sean says the AMC can hold any asset that a fund can hold that a fund can hold, subject to legality and the relevant structural requirements. That creates flexibility across listed and private markets.<\/p>\n
The asset universe can include listed equities, options, leverage, structured products, private equity, real estate, crypto assets, and pre-IPO opportunities. Kyros can also tokenise the AMC, allowing the structure to intersect with digital asset infrastructure where appropriate.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can setup an AMC for real estate, private equity, listed shares, options, structured products, crypto assets, and we can also tokenise the AMC,\u201d Sean says. \u201cEssentially, you can do whatever you can do in a normal fund structure, but through an AMC.\u201d<\/p>\n
That flexibility matters because many advisers and managers are no longer working only with listed public market strategies. Private markets, pre-IPO access, thematic portfolios, digital assets, and bespoke transactions are increasingly part of client conversations. But without an efficient wrapper, those opportunities can be difficult to distribute, administer, and hold in a client\u2019s existing banking infrastructure.<\/p>\n
Sean sees this as one of the practical roles of the AMC. It is not only a cheaper fund substitute. It is a way to make complex or less conventional investment exposures more administratively usable.<\/p>\n
Solving the Multi-Family Office Problem<\/p>\n
Multi-family offices are one of Kyros\u2019 main target markets. Sean sees a strong fit because these firms often source investment opportunities for multiple clients but do not always want the administrative burden of creating a full fund or coordinating separate investor subscriptions into an underlying transaction.<\/p>\n
He gives the example of a private equity transaction involving 10 private clients. In a conventional process, the multi-family office may need to gather KYC documentation from each investor, manage multiple subscription agreements, coordinate with the private equity counterparty, and track the investment outside the clients\u2019 bankable portfolios.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I am a multi-family office and I want to do a private equity transaction, I may have to collect 10 KYCs from 10 investors,\u201d Sean says. \u201cThen I have to go to the private equity party and say, here are my 10 investors, here is all the KYC. That is a drag on time.\u201d<\/p>\n
With an AMC, Kyros can create a single instrument that the 10 investors buy through their private bank accounts. The AMC has a clearable ISIN through Euroclear, which means it can typically sit within the client\u2019s safekeeping account.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith us, the 10 private investors just buy the AMC through their private bank account,\u201d Sean says. \u201cIt is much easier and much quicker than collecting 10 KYCs and 10 subscription agreements.\u201d<\/p>\n
That also changes the position for private bankers and external asset managers. Where a direct private equity subscription may move assets out of the private bank, an AMC can allow the exposure to remain visible and booked within the bank account. Sean sees this as an important incentive alignment point for the ecosystem.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt is not a loss of AUM for the banker or the multi-family office,\u201d he says. \u201cIf an investor invests into a private equity transaction directly, technically that is AUM out of the bank.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Daily NAV and Bloomberg Visibility<\/p>\n
Kyros also positions its technology as a key part of the proposition. The firm has built a NAV calculation tool that connects directly with trading platforms such as Interactive Brokers or private bank platforms. The system pulls data daily, calculates the NAV, applies management fees, performance fees, Kyros\u2019 own fee, and any distribution fees, and then publishes the NAV into Bloomberg.<\/p>\n
This is materially different from a conventional fund administration cycle, where NAVs may be calculated monthly and delivered many days after month-end.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith a fund, you may have to wait a month and then wait T+10-20 for the NAV,\u201d Sean says. \u201cWith us, we essentially have an automated fund administrator or calculation tool.\u201d<\/p>\n
For managers and advisers, daily NAV availability can improve transparency and distribution. Investors can see pricing more frequently, private banks can process subscriptions more easily, and the product can be marketed with clearer visibility.<\/p>\n
Sean sees this as one of the reasons AMCs can be more commercially practical than many traditional fund structures, particularly for smaller or more targeted strategies.<\/p>\n
Economics for Managers and Advisers<\/p>\n
The economics for the manager can look similar to a conventional fund. The party setting up the AMC can charge a management fee, performance fee, and any distribution fees, subject to the structure and commercial arrangement.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the person setting it up, it is just like a normal fund,\u201d Sean says. \u201cThey can charge a management fee, a performance fee, and any distribution fees they want to include.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kyros\u2019 own fee model is deliberately lighter at the front end. The firm does not charge setup fees or issuance fees. Instead, it charges an annual maintenance fee, which includes daily NAV calculation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do not charge setup fees and we do not charge issuance fees,\u201d Sean says. \u201cWe just charge a small annual maintenance fee, and that includes the calculation of the annual audit, annual financial statements, direct pricing into bloomberg and access to our PMS reporting tool.\u201d<\/p>\n
That matters because upfront costs can discourage managers from testing new strategies, launching niche products, or responding quickly to market opportunities. A Cayman fund, BVI structure, Singapore VCC, or other fund vehicle may make sense where the expected scale is large enough. But where the initial raise is smaller, or where a manager wants to test investor demand, the AMC can be a more efficient route.<\/p>\n
Pre-IPO Wrapping and Transaction Opportunities<\/p>\n
Kyros has already seen demand for pre-IPO wrapping, particularly in Hong Kong. Sean says this is one area where the AMC structure can help clients move quickly around specific opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have been doing a lot of pre-IPO wrapping,\u201d he says. \u201cHong Kong is a big market for that at the moment. We set up a sub-fund, that sub-fund issues the AMC, and we can do that quickly and easily.\u201d<\/p>\n
The appeal lies partly in speed. A pre-IPO opportunity may not remain open for long enough to justify a conventional fund launch. A manager or family office may need to move in weeks, not months. The AMC can provide a faster vehicle for pooling investor access and making the exposure bankable.<\/p>\n
Sean is careful to distinguish Kyros\u2019 capability from bank-issued products, particularly when private assets are involved. Banks may face limitations around private assets in their own AMC structures, while Kyros can hold private assets because of its fund infrastructure.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur structure can hold private assets,\u201d he says. \u201cBank-issued AMCs are typically issued on balance sheet, which can limit the range of assets they are able to accommodate. Our structure is off balance sheet, with a sub-fund acting as the issuer of the AMC, which allows it to hold a broader range of assets that a fund structure could hold.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asia\u2019s Education Curve<\/p>\n
Despite the advantages, Sean is clear that adoption in Asia requires education. Many market participants are more familiar with Cayman SPCs, Singapore VCCs, BVI funds, and other traditional vehicles. When Kyros introduces the AMC concept, many potential clients need to understand what the instrument is, how it is issued, how it is booked, how assets are held, and how it differs from a bank note or a fund.<\/p>\n
That education process is one of Kyros\u2019 main priorities over the next 18 months.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our biggest priorities is getting the name of the AMC out there,\u201d Sean says. \u201cIn Asia, most people have never really heard of an AMC. They are used to Cayman SPCs, Singapore VCCs, or BVI funds.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sees multi-family offices as one of the strongest channels for that education, because the use case is immediately practical. These firms need efficient ways to structure, distribute, and monitor investment opportunities across multiple clients. Fund managers are another important group, particularly where they want to spin out a strategy, test a new idea, or move quickly in response to a market trend.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf fund managers are looking to spin out a strategy, or launch something quickly because of market trends, we can do that,\u201d Sean says. \u201cIt takes us two weeks to set up an AMC.\u201d<\/p>\n
Building From Singapore, Zurich and Hong Kong<\/p>\n
Kyros is headquartered in Singapore and has recently opened an office in Zurich. Sean says the Zurich office is important given the Swiss origins and familiarity of the AMC market. The firm also plans to expand into Hong Kong, with Dubai a likely future market, although Sean says that has been delayed by geopolitical considerations.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are headquartered in Singapore,\u201d he says. \u201cWe have opened an office in Zurich, and another priority is to expand into Hong Kong. Eventually Dubai will also be a market we look at.\u201d<\/p>\n
This geographic footprint reflects the nature of the AMC opportunity. Switzerland provides market familiarity and institutional experience. Singapore and Hong Kong provide access to Asian private wealth, family offices, external asset managers, and fund platforms. Dubai offers a growing wealth management and fund structuring market, particularly for international families and advisers, although timing remains dependent on external conditions.<\/p>\n
For Kyros, the expansion plan is not simply about opening offices. It is about building awareness around a structure that is still underused in Asia, despite being established in Europe.<\/p>\n
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Key Priorities<\/p>\n
Kyros Capital\u2019s agenda over the next 18 months is shaped by three major priorities:<\/p>\n
Expanding AMC Education Across Asia: Kyros\u2019 first priority is to build awareness of AMCs among private banks, multi-family offices, fund managers, investment platforms, and advisers. Sean says many Asian market participants remain more familiar with Cayman SPCs, Singapore VCCs, and BVI funds, while AMCs are still often misunderstood or unknown.<\/p>\n
Deepening Multi-Family Office and Fund Manager Adoption: Kyros sees strong demand from multi-family offices that want to package investment opportunities for multiple clients quickly and efficiently. Fund managers are also an important audience, particularly where they want to launch a strategy, respond to market trends, or test demand without the cost and time burden of a conventional fund launch.<\/p>\n
Building Technology and Regional Reach: Kyros is continuing to develop its daily NAV automation tool, which connects with trading platforms, calculates NAVs and fee components, and publishes prices into Bloomberg. The firm is also expanding geographically from Singapore into Zurich and Hong Kong, with Dubai likely to become a future focus.<\/p>\n
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Into The Future<\/p>\n
Sean expects AMCs to become much more widely understood in Asia over the next 10 years. As awareness improves, he believes multi-family offices, asset managers, private banks, and advisers will use AMCs to broaden their product range and bring more opportunities into bankable form.<\/p>\n
The trend he sees is not only about speed or cost. It is about consolidation. In Europe, he says, investors increasingly want everything to be bankable. They may have one, two, or three private bank accounts, but they want their holdings visible inside those accounts. They do not want a fragmented mix of private bank portfolios, Cayman funds, BVI funds, VCCs, and offshore vehicles sitting outside their consolidated reporting.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Europe, everything now needs an ISIN,\u201d Sean says. \u201cPeople want to subscribe through their bank into whatever investment they want, and for it to sit there in their bank or broker account.\u201d<\/p>\n
He expects Asia to move in the same direction. Investors will increasingly question why they need to complete long subscription agreements, send money to offshore vehicles, and hold investments across multiple structures that are not consolidated into their private bank accounts.<\/p>\n
With an AMC, the process can look more like buying a bond or stock. The investor subscribes to the instrument, the private bank books the ISIN into the client\u2019s safekeeping account, and the exposure is held alongside other bankable assets.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are tired of sending money to offshore vehicles and not really knowing where they are with it,\u201d Sean says. \u201cWith an AMC, you can say, I want to subscribe USD1 million into this project, and the private bank books the ISIN into the client\u2019s safekeeping account.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Sean, this is where the longer-term relevance of AMCs becomes clear. They are not only wrappers for fund managers. They are part of a broader shift towards simpler access, more consolidated reporting, faster execution, and bankable exposure to strategies and assets that might otherwise sit outside the private banking system.<\/p>\n
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Getting Personal with Sean Green<\/p>\n
Sean Green is Head of Distribution at Kyros Capital, where he focuses on building awareness and adoption of actively managed certificates across private wealth, fund management, and investment platform channels.<\/p>\n
Originally from Nottingham, England, Sean studied international business finance through a four-year degree split between Leeds and Granada University in Spain. His early career included time working in Spain before he moved to Asia 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
He has since spent 10 years in Hong Kong and 10 years in Singapore. Over the past decade, his work has centred heavily on fund administration, helping managers establish fund vehicles across Singapore, Cayman, and other jurisdictions. He worked with Amicorp and Trident, gaining direct exposure to the operational and administrative pain points that managers face when launching and running funds.<\/p>\n
That background is central to how he sees Kyros\u2019 proposition today. During his fund administration career, clients often asked why NAVs took so long, why valuations were only monthly, why fund setup was so expensive, and why the process involved so much friction. AMCs now gives him an answer to those questions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was in fund administration, clients were always asking why they had to wait 10\/20 days for a NAV, why they could only do NAV once a month without paying a fortune, and why it was so expensive to set up a fund,\u201d he says. \u201cIt has been enjoyable going back to people and saying, all those problems you had before, I can now solve.\u201d<\/p>\n
He says the response from clients is often one of surprise. The speed, cost structure, daily NAV, and bankability can sound unusually efficient when compared with the traditional fund process. But once clients have used the structure, Sean says repeat demand is strong.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you tell people, it can almost sound too good to be true,\u201d he says. \u201cBut what we have found is that when people do one product, they will do another. The retention and comeback rate is extremely high.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside work, Sean is a keen snowboarder and tries to travel to Japan once or twice a year. His favourite destination is Miyoko, although he has also snowboarded in California and Europe. He describes Japan as probably the best place in the world for snowboarding.<\/p>\n
He also keeps fit through the gym and Hyrox, which he has done with his partner. Much of his current time, however, is focused on building Kyros and expanding the AMC market in Asia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As private banks, multi-family offices, fund managers and investment platforms look for faster, more cost-efficient ways to bring…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":753185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[173438,173442,173450,173446,173437,173441,173449,173445,173439,173443,173451,173447,173436,173440,173448,173444,45,49,48,15954,133,131,132,9210],"class_list":["post-753184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-personal-finance","tag-asia-private-banking","tag-asia-private-banking-news","tag-asia-private-banking-online-training","tag-asia-private-banking-training","tag-asia-wealth-management","tag-asia-wealth-management-news","tag-asia-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asia-wealth-management-training","tag-asian-private-banking","tag-asian-private-banking-news","tag-asian-private-banking-online-training","tag-asian-private-banking-training","tag-asian-wealth-management","tag-asian-wealth-management-news","tag-asian-wealth-management-online-training","tag-asian-wealth-management-training","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-e-learning","tag-finance","tag-personal-finance","tag-personalfinance","tag-training"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=753184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/753184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/753185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=753184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=753184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=753184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}