Euroclear is introducing an investment fund ‘quality label’ programme to accelerate automation and STP in fund-transaction processing. Beginning in April 2007, transactions in funds carrying the FundSettleTM Premier quality label will cost less to process.
To encourage more fund distributors to fully automate their back-office operations, it will cost up to 25 percent less to process fund transactions with the FundSettle Premier label.
“We are delighted to work closely with the fund-promoter and transfer-agent community in creating FundSettle Premier as a catalyst to achieve greater processing efficiency in the funds industry,” says Ivan Nicora, the Director of Investment Fund Product Management at Euroclear. “We have high expectations that funds carrying the FundSettle Premier label will create a new standard in our industry.”
“Euroclear’s strategic user forum, with experts representing organisations across Europe involved in the investment-fund industry, has been the focal point in directing the development of FundSettle’s services over the last three years,” adds Gary Janaway, the Head of Operations at Schroder Fund Services Luxembourg “The launch of the Fundsettle Premier label introduces new services with higher standards and is the first in a series of initiatives that the FundSettle User Group is considering to reduce the cost of trading investment funds whilst increasing productivity across the industry. I believe this is a bold step by Euroclear in their drive to address the issues of bringing standardisation, automation and efficiency to the processing and servicing of investment funds across Europe.”