London and New York, October 2012 – GOAL Group Limited, a claims outsourcing provider and tax reclamation specialist, today announced the appointment of Michael T. Bancroft, CPA to head up its new presence in the Americas based in Wilmington, DE.

Mr Bancroft has specialised in class action claims administration since the 1980s, with his case experience embracing security, antitrust, product, consumer, governmental and employment class actions.

Stephen Everard, CEO, GOAL Group, comments: “Michael’s 30+ years of experience in all aspects of claims administration, with one of the top claims administrators in the country, puts him in a unique and elite class.  His expertise in claims processing, court approved plans of allocations, settlement fund distribution and tax reporting makes him the perfect choice to head up our new U.S. office.”

GOAL Group’s new US operation, launched on October 1, extends the company’s services, widely employed in Europe and Asia, to a fully global client base, providing class action claim filing services to corporate pension funds, global custodians, banks, local government authorities, brokerage firms and hedge funds.  With the passing of the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) in the U.S., foreign financial institutions are increasingly looking for help and services in reporting income and investments for US citizens, making tax reclamation and claim filing services essential.

Mr Bancroft started his career in 1979 at the Certified Public Accounting firm Heffler, Radetich & Saitta LLP, in Philadelphia, PA, and became a Partner in 1986, with his sole responsibilities relating to claims administration.  He left Heffler as the firm’s Litigation Department Head.

Michael Bancroft comments: “Over the past 30 years I have processed claims filed in hundreds of security and antitrust class actions and I know the data requirements, costs and staff time it takes to file a complete and accurate claim. I also believe with the current climate of case complexities, timing of settlements, custodial staffing costs and turnover that prudent financial institutions will have to outsource its in-house claims processing to cut costs and maintain client requests.  I joined GOAL because I believe in their forward thinking, world-wide outsourcing model and most of all, I support their commitment to develop and maintain a proprietary case research and claim calculation platform.  In my opinion the functionality and accuracy of our current platforms, along with our website’s client portal, are second to none.  With our in-house team of IT, research and claim specialists, the day a case is filed, we start the process of providing clients with current and accurate case alerts, updates and claim calculations.”

Mr Bancroft continues: “With the compliance pressures of FATCA and every country’s economic pressures to generate revenue, the importance of effective tax reclamation on cross-border securities earnings is ripe.  Every custodian, trustee, money manager and advisor will now have additional fiduciary responsibilities added to their plate and we offer solutions, both in-house and outsourcing, to meet all tax reclamation requirements.”