First European Transfer Agent (FETA), the transfer agency arm of Luxembourg based Dexia BIL, is to pilot the new SWIFTNet Funds service.
The first phase of the new ISO15022 edition 2 (XML) message standards will be tested from the third quarter 2004 by 15 fund industry players, including 8 distributors. FETA will start the pilot phase by testing subscriptions, redemptions and switches, later increasing the scope to include cash flow messages. At a still later stage, FETA will test additional messages available in the service (such as status, price, account opening and maintenance messages).
“SWIFT is committed to providing the funds industry with a comprehensive messaging solution, allowing all players to maximize their straight-through processing and straight-through reporting rates,” says Michle De Boe, Business Solution Manager for SWIFTNet Funds. “The active support and leadership of major institutions like FETA in promoting standardization and automation in the funds industry is invaluable and will serve as a catalyst to drive more automation in the market.”
FETA was one of the first transfer agents and the first third party transfer agent to implement the SWIFT FIN based ISO15022 FIN Fund Template solution. Today, an average of 10,000 orders/month are received by FETA using the ISO15022 FIN Fund Template, 97% of which are handled on a full STP basis. It represents for FETA an additional tool and a good opportunity to increase its general STP level which today reaches 73.5%.
Two years ago, SWIFT started a standards working group to develop a better and more comprehensive range of new ISO XML standards to support fund distribution in which FETA has been actively involved. FETA understood from the beginning that SWIFT expertise offers a real chance to create a common and standardised network with guaranteed neutrality.
FETA makes no secret of its enthusiasm for the SWIFT mutual fund messages. It says it believes that the SWIFT initiative will highly contribute to the automation of the industry and will allow greater efficiency, permanent cost reduction, wider market and fund coverage, a larger range of functionalities, and improved automation and technology.
FETA operates in conjunction with Dexia Fund Services, a custodian and mutual fund, pension fund and managed account administrator with operations in Amsterdam, Luxembourg, Brussels, Dublin, Hong Kong, the Cayman Islands, Madrid, Milan, Paris, Singapore and Zurich.
At the end of last year, FETA was acting as Transfer Agent for mutual funds with a total of 271 billion assets and is currently processing over 5 million transactions a year. FETA has a total of 3 million shareholders in its registers. Dexia BIL has over 300 billion in assets under custody.