SWIFT announced earlier this week that Fidelity and Citco were now sending live mutual fund subscription, redemption and switching messages between them using the ISO 20022 compliant SWIFTNet Funds service.
The Brussels-based messaging utility says the Luxembourg and UK operations of Fidelity are using the messages, while the Citco operations in Italy and Dublin are also using them. SWIFT says this “proves the cross-border nature of the solution.” Strong volumes of live transactions have already been exchanged for subscriptions, redemptions and switches.
“This is an important step towards increased automation,” says Kathy Shackle, Director of Operations at Fidelity in Luxembourg. “The advantage of SWIFTNet Funds is that it allows automation of additional processes within the mutual fund business as well as standardization across the market place.”
Andrea Milanesio, Director of Information Technology at Citco Bank in Milan, says the private banking and fund administration group completed the first phase of the migration from SWIFT ISO 150022 to XML ISO 20022, and found that the transition with Fidelity was extremely smooth. “Cross-border orders routed to Fidelity from Citco Milan are now fully automated and based on the XML ISO 20022 standard,” he says. “This is a significant step forward for automation and standardisation in the mutual fund community.”
Bill Gourlay, Global Head of Sales, Funds at SWIFT, expressed his delight. “The SWIFTNet Funds product is now able to offer a significant range of message types which will bring major benefits in terms of scalability, efficiency and risk reduction to all participants in the transactional lifecycle,” he added.