In creating Turn – a platform designed to standardise the copious data requirements under MiFID II – the funds industry has found something like a Holy Grail: a utility built not so much from blockchain, but from the willingness of competing firms to cooperate.
Fund operations have long suffered from commercial interests that have hindered standardisation and efficiencies, and resulted in a proliferation of ‘solutions’.
Turn and some of its participants say hundreds of thousands of pounds/euros can and already have been saved on data management related to fund distribution under MiFID rules, thanks in part to Turn’s centralised, non-profit model. Turn also has Priips data costs in its sights.
The utility stands to reduce asset management costs and perhap fund fees in the longer run. Savings appear to come – logically enough – from the data vendors and aggregators (see ‘Swinging the axe at data management costs’ article).
But more participation is needed for Turn to evolve into a utility rather than remain an intriguing project. Right now, just over a dozen firms are involved. But at least some of these asset managers have enjoyed many thousands of pounds in cost savings.
Nick Fitzpatrick, Group Editor, Funds Europe
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