Cross-interview with Michael Martineau, Chief Executive Officer of Fund Channel, and Jean-François Valentin, Senior Business Development Manager at Fund Channel, one year after the launch of Fund Channel Liquidity, designed for corporate treasurers.
Fund Channel celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2025. How has your offer to investors and more specifically to corporate treasurers evolved in recent years?
Michael Martineau Our purpose is to remove the operational, legal, compliance and financial barriers that limit the growth of open architecture, both for distributors and asset management companies. We observed that large European corporates had not yet fully industrialised their cash investment processes. That is why we launched our offering for corporate treasurers, Fund Channel Liquidity, in April 2025.
Jean-François Valentin Asset managers have been even more willing to support us because our approach also helped to make companies’ subscription processes in their money market funds more transparent, thereby improving the management of their liabilities. This recognition is also reflected in the awards we have received, including the "Best Distribution Platform in Europe" award, for the fourth year in a row.
What synergies does being part of the Crédit Agricole Group bring to Fund Channel?
M. M. To create this new offer, we have benefited from the expertise of Amundi, the European leader in asset management and the leading money market fund manager in Europe, as well as Amundi Technology, from which we have integrated certain modules from the Alto suite into our range of services for treasurers. Caceis, one of the leading custodians in Europe, contributes to order processing and liquidity management. Finally, in a context where the stakes of European sovereignty are becoming increasingly important, the fact that this initiative is supported by a major European banking group such as Crédit Agricole is an undeniable advantage.
How does Fund Channel Liquidity specifically meet the needs of corporate treasurers?
J.-F. V. We have built this offer with corporate treasurers. From the outset, we spoke with a dozen of them in order to understand their expectations. They told us that they wanted to enhance portfolio analysis, understand the drivers of performance more clearly, and better assess their exposure to market risk and counterparty risk. From an operational point of view, large corporates wanted to gain efficiency and rigour in their processes. Most of them work with multiple banking partners, which makes it difficult to obtain a consolidated view of their positions. Fund Channel Liquidity removes this operational complexity and makes it easier to diversify treasury investments. In this regard, we have also expanded our range of investment vehicles (total return swaps, short-term bond funds) in order to provide additional sources of performance.
What are the key features of Fund Channel Liquidity?
J.-F. V. Firstly, we provide access to a fund analysis and selection tool that makes it possible to build an investment universe, with a comparator based on more than a hundred criteria (domiciliation, currencies, outperformance, risk, level of liquidity, fees, ESG factors, etc.). The investor can then simulate the impact of a subscription or redemption on their portfolio, before placing an order. They can view all their aggregated positions across their different funds, in order to avoid possible over-exposures and understand the different contributions to the performance of their portfolios. The portfolio management tool is also configurable and allows users to define limits. Finally, Fund Channel Liquidity connects to the company's internal environment, its TMS (Treasury Management System). Any company that has signed an agreement with Fund Channel can benefit from all these services free of charge.
In the medium term, what are Fund Channel's main priorities?
M. M. We are going to open Fund Channel to private assets, in response to the democratisation of access to unlisted markets, through closed-end or evergreen funds, for which the distribution processes must be adapted. Geographically, we are going to accelerate our development in Asia, with a strong focus on treasury solutions. Regarding Fund Channel Liquidity, we observe that large companies ask whether digital payment flows, the use of digital currencies and stablecoins are relevant. Thus, we want to be able to offer access to tokenised money market fund units (such as those launched by Amundi in 2025) in the future.
