Cross-Border Distribution of UCITS

A CACEIS PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT PUBLICATION - 2011

CHALLENGES & OPPORTUNITIES

3.4.2

Various initiatives have emerged to increase automation and standardisation

In the past years, various initiatives have been taken by market place groups, SWIFT, ICSDs and other players such as transfer agents to automate processes so that the fund industry can cope with the massive increase in dealing volumes and operational risks reduction requirements. Im- proved response times and standardised interfaces also result in enhanced services. The key drivers and benefits of automation can be summed up as follows:

Table 9: Key drivers and benefits of automation

Key drivers

Benefits

• Guaranteed delivery (e.g. missing fax/page) • Reduce human errors (e.g. mistyping, blurred fax) • Audit trail • More flexible dealing window (cut-off times extension) • Detailed reporting allowing efficient reconciliation • 24/7 system availability • Reduce administration time & error handling time • Reduce manual faxing & administration cost/risk • Allow labour flexibility & improve efficiency

• Improve risk control • Improve customer service and satisfaction • Improve scalability and processing speed • Improve corporate image • Improve corporate IT infrastructure • Reduce manual labour & improve cost efficiency

Source: SWIFT, 2008

The rationalisation of fund processing involves numerous actors, processes and components, as illustrated by graph 23:

Graph 23: Actors, processes and components at stake for streamlining fund processing

Management companies

Other fund promoters

Distributors

Transfer agents

ACTORS PROCESSES COMPONENTS

Settlement & custody

Account opening

Trading

Routing

3.4

Personnel

Technology

Pricing

Risk

Source: SWIFT, 2008

Much has been achieved already but more can be done and the efforts must continue. In- deed, only when the necessary changes are implemented by all industry players, will the benefits truly be delivered to the market as a whole.

Cross-border distribution of UCITS | page 55