Press ReleaseFor immediate releaseEFAMA and SWIFT Report Shows a Steady Increase in ISO Standardisation Rates for Funds
Press Release
For immediate release
EFAMA and SWIFT Report Shows a Steady Increase in ISO Standardisation Rates for Funds
Mid-year status update reveals continued growth in automation driven by ISO standard adoption
Brussels, 10 October 2012 The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) today published, in cooperation with SWIFT, a mid-year report* on the evolution of automation and standardisation rates of fund orders received by transfer agents (TAs) in the cross-border fund centres of Luxembourg and Ireland in the first half of 2012.
The new report is an on-going effort undertaken by EFAMA and SWIFT to highlight the advancement of automation and standardisation rates of orders of cross-border funds. 32 TAs in Ireland and Luxembourg, representing more than 80 percent of the total incoming third-party investment funds order volumes in both markets, participated in the survey.
Highlights from the report:
In Q2 2012, the total automation rate (ISO and proprietary files) of orders received by Luxembourg and Irish TAs reached 77%, compared to 75.6% in Q4 2011.
The total automation rate increase is driven by increased adoption of the ISO messaging standard (+ 4.4 percentage points since Q4 2011) and a decrease in the use of proprietary file transfer protocols (ftps) (-3.1 percentage points) and faxes (- 1.4 percentage points).
o In Luxemburg, the total automation rate (ISO + proprietary ftp) increased by 2.9 percentage points to 73.1% in Q2 2012 compared to Q4 2011. The ISO standardisation rate reached 55.2% (+ 2.5 percentage points).o In Ireland, the total automation rate increased by 0.4 percentage points to 84.6% in Q2 2012; while ftps still represent the bulk of it, the ISO adoption rate made a progression of 4.2 percentage points to 17.3% in Q2 2012. The ISO standardization rate has doubled in Ireland over the last two years, reaching 17.3% in Q2 2012 against 8.5% in Q2 2010.
The total number of orders has stabilised at 11.9 million orders in the first half of 2012. The number of manually processed orders decreased by 7% to 2.8 million received faxes (against 3 million in H2 2011). This still represents a daily average of some 25,000 incoming faxes.
Peter De Proft, EFAMA Director General, notes: In the previous edition of the report, we set the goal for the
industry to move closer to the 80 percent threshold for total automation rate in 2012. The mid-year 77% rate is an achievement to applaud and a very positive step in this direction. This shows the priority that the industry sets to itself to continue to strengthen efficiency in fund-back office activities for the ultimate benefit of end investors.
Fabian Vandenreydt, Head of Securities Markets, SWIFT, notes: We applaud the continuous progress towards ISO adoption by distributors and transfer agents. The 77% ISO adoption rate is a great achievement and we are indeed confident that the 80% threshold is at our doorstep. SWIFT will continue to actively support standardisation initiatives in the industry, so that fund actors can leverage the benefits of ISO standardization. Doing so will allow the industry to further reduce the 25.000 orders per day that are still treated by fax.
*The report can be downloaded on the websites of EFAMA and SWIFT.
ENDS
For further information:
Peter De Proft Bernard Delbecque
Director General Director of Economics and Research
EFAMAEFAMA
+32-2-513 39 69+32-2-513 39 69
Michele de Boe
Head of Funds
SWIFT
+32 2 655 3418
Notes to editors
EFAMA is the representative association for the European investment management industry. EFAMA represents through its 26 member associations and 59 corporate members approximately EUR 14 trillion in assets under management of which EUR 8.4 trillion was managed by approximately 54,000 funds at end June 2012. Just above 36,200 of these funds were UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) funds. For more information about EFAMA, please visit www.efama.org.
SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,000 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 212 countries and territories. SWIFT enables its users to exchange automated, standardised financial information securely and reliably, thereby lowering costs, reducing operational risk and eliminating operational inefficiencies. SWIFT also brings the financial community together to work collaboratively to shape market practice, define standards and debate issues of mutual interest.
