City started providing corporate and fund services in 2006. At that time, such outsourced service provision was a well-established alternative to the direct employment of staff to carry out non-core activities. Our ambition was to raise the standard of outsourced services and, wherever possible, lower the fees. In particular, we sought to add value through innovation and we welcomed accountability.
City is wholly owned by its directors and is independent of any other business. Its principal shareholder is its founder and managing director, Robin Smeaton, who, as chief executive of the business services arm of a merchant bank, developed a corporate and fund services business with some £1.5bn funds under administration and 200 UK fund management clients before launching City.
In addition to Robin Smeaton, City’s directors are: Alan Hartley, City's chairman, who worked with KPMG for over 30 years, 20 as a partner, but now splits his time between acting as chairman of the housebuilding company, McTaggart & Mickel, and serving as a director of several other businesses; Robin Finlayson, formerly a tax partner and managing partner of Ernst & Young, but now sharing his time between City and serving as chairman of Sinnalba Group which specialises in complex project management solutions; and Rudi Smeaton, City's Director of Operations.
City’s management team comprises:
Robin Smeaton, Managing Director;Rudi Smeaton, Director of Operations;Andrew Lecomber-Peace, Director of Receiving Agent & Registrar Services; andNicola Darling, Director of Accounting Services
City is registered with the FCA as an Annex 1 Financial Institution.
