First Citizens launches open-architecture service with front-office support. First Citizens Capital Management, the brokerage unit of Columbia, S.C.-based First Citizens Bancorporation, has launched a new fee-based investment platform for its wealth-management group that relies on third-party investment-platform provider FundQuest's back-office and technology-support services. The bank's new Capital Manager platform incorporates FundQuest's investment models and multi-manager program to give advisors increased flexibility for customized portfolio management, according to FundQuest.

More models, more support

"FundQuest has worked closely with us to integrate their services with our existing operations," says Britt Borders, head of First Citizens' Wealth Advisory Group. "The enhanced capabilities in the Capital Manager program will enable us to operate more efficiently and will expand our ability to meet the needs of each individual wealth-management client."

The platform includes mutual funds, ETFs, separately managed accounts and general securities. In addition to investments, Capital Manager provides detailed pictures of the client's financial position, administrative support, and access to sales collateral, investment research, and educational tools.

FundQuest relationship manager Maryanne Morrow says First Citizen's new platform "will increase the competitiveness of the managed account component of [its] investment-management business while providing technology-based tools to increase the productivity of their wealth advisors."

Holding company First Citizens Bancorporation conducts retail and commercial banking operations in South Carolina and Georgia through 182 branches of First Citizens Bank and Trust, the Exchange Bank of South Carolina and Merchants & Farmers Bank of Comer.

Boston-based FundQuest, a subsidiary of Paris-based BNP Paribas, has around $40 billion in assets under management and administration in the U.S. and Europe. -FWR

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