The percentage of fund orders that were processed manually in Ireland and Luxembourg fell by 12% last year and the industry was praised for increasing efficiencies.
Automation rates – which are being pushed higher by the European Fund and Asset Management Association (Efama) and bank network Swift in an ongoing campaign – reached 88% in the last quarter of 2017. This has risen since 2010 when the rate was about 75%.
Efama and Swift regularly chart the evolution of automation and standardisation rates of fund orders received by transfer agents (TAs) in the major cross-border fund centres of Luxembourg and Ireland.
The Swift initiative to standardise processes has received praise, but critics say much more collaboration is needed over inter-operability in asset management for further gains in operational efficiencies.
The total volume of orders processed by the 29 survey participants reached 38.8 million last year and the increase in automation was put at 1.3 percentage points compared to the fourth quarter of 2016.
Luxembourg TAs reached 85.4% in the last quarter of 2017 compared to 84.4% in the last quarter of 2016, while Irish TAs increased automation to 92.1%, from 90.6%.
Peter De Proft, Efama director general, said: “The increase in the automation rate of orders of cross-border funds from 75.4% in 2010 to 88% in 2017 highlights the sustained efforts made by fund managers to increase the efficiency of their operations. The use of automation contributes to strengthening the competitiveness of Ucits and its attractiveness to investors, both globally and locally”.
Janice E. Chapman, manager, investment funds standards at Swift, said it was “exciting” to see that the automation rates of supporting processes, such as price reporting, cash forecast reporting and funds transfers, were also on the rise and that it reconfirmed the industry trend towards automation using the ISO 20022 standard.
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