Brussels, for immediate release
Funds processing rates reach new levels of automation
New report from EFAMA and SWIFT confirms total industry standardisation and automation rates continue to progress
Brussels, 24 November 2015 The European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) today published in cooperation with SWIFT, a new 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 2015.
The report confirms that the automation rate in the fund industry increased to 83.5% in Q2 2015 from 82.6% in Q4 2014.
The report is an on-going campaign by EFAMA and SWIFT to highlight the advancement of automation and standardisation rates of orders of cross-border funds. 29 TAs from Ireland and Luxembourg participated in this survey, representing more than 80% of the total incoming third-party investment funds order volumes in both markets.
The report highlights include:
* The total order volume of cross-border funds increased by 11% to 17.5 million orders in the first half of 2015, from 15.8 million orders in the second half of 2014. The use of ISO messaging standards rose by 3.8 percentages points (p.p.) to 53.2%, while the use of manual processes and proprietary formats (FTP) dropped to 16.5% (-0.9 p.p.) and 30.3% (-2.9 p.p.), respectively, in the same time period.
* The total automation rate of orders processed by Luxembourg TAs reached 81.2% in Q2 2015 compared to 81.3% in Q4 2014. The ISO automation rate increased from 57.9% in Q4 2014 to 64.3% in Q2 2015, while the use of proprietary ftp decreased from 23.4% in Q4 2014 to 16.9% in Q2 2015.
* The total automation rate of orders processed by Irish TAs increased to 88.3% in Q2 2015, from 85.6% in Q4 2014. The percentage of automated orders based on the ISO messaging standards increase to 30.7% in Q2 2015, from 29.5% in Q4 2014.
Peter De Proft, EFAMA Director General, says: The findings presented in this mid-year status report confirms the growing use of the ISO messaging standards in the processing of cross-border funds in both Luxembourg and Ireland. Compared to five years ago, overall, the share of orders processed using these standards has increased from 36% to 53%. This is a very positive development which brings greater efficiency funds processing and lower costs.
Fabian Vandenreydt, Global Head of Securities, Innotribe and the SWIFT Institute, SWIFT, adds: This report indicates the strong focus of the industry towards a more efficient and reliable process in the funds industry. The decrease of FTP usage and manual processing versus adoption of ISO standards keeps on drawing the trends towards automation and cost reduction. SWIFT and EFAMA will pursue their efforts to lower the manual process as much as possible and support the industry where and when needed.
Ends
* Please click 
here to download a full copy of the joint EFAMA/SWIFT standardisation mid 2015 report.
here to download a full copy of the joint EFAMA/SWIFT standardisation mid 2015 report.For further information, please contact:
Peter De Proft
Director General
EFAMA
+32-2-513 39 69
Bernard Delbecque
Director of Economics and Research
EFAMA
+32-2-513 39 69
Valrie Letellier
Senior Market Manager
Marketing
SWIFT
Valerie.LETELLIER@swift.com
+32-2-655 39 44
Notes to editors:
About the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA)
EFAMA is the representative association for the European investment management industry. EFAMA represents through its 26 member associations and 63 corporate members about EUR 19 trillion in assets under management of which EUR 12.6 trillion managed by over 56,000 investment funds at end June 2015. 29,000 of these funds were UCITS (Undertakings for Collective Investments in Transferable Securities) funds. For more information about EFAMA, please visit www.efama.org.
About SWIFT
SWIFT is a member-owned cooperative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect more than 10,500 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in 215 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. For more information about SWIFT, please visit www.swift.com.
The report can be downloaded on the websites of EFAMA and SWIFT.
