Investia, the IT company whose Javelin technology lies beneath JP Morgan FundsHub, says it has been appointed by Fundsdirect as a technology provider to the Fundsdirect Adviser Platform. Investia’s appointment follows collaborative development work between the two companies over the course of the past year.
The Fundsdirect Adviser Platform is a multi-product transactional and reporting platform serving retail financial advisers that aims to provide a comprehensive wrap account and financial trading platform for IFAs in the UK. It s an Internet based technology platform, which will combine a range of investments including equities, managed funds and bonds from different manufacturers. This will enable advisers to manage and transact a client’s entire financial portfolio from one platform, giving a holistic view of their assets. It removes much of the burden of dealing with multiple providers, by providing single commission statements, for example. The Adviser Platform also incorporates a number of financial planning and reporting tools to assist in the research and management of the client’s portfolio. The benefits of the platform will enable the adviser to adopt a more efficient business model, tackling changes in the regulatory environment and distribution dynamics, reducing administration and paperwork and freeing up time to provide a better service to their clients.
“We are very proud to have been appointed by Fundsdirect and for our technology to be extended into the UK IFA market,” says Investia’s CEO Mark Collier.”In our strategic partnership with Fundsdirect we will be providing the latest state of the art trading, settlement and clearing capabilities to the IFA marketplace in the UK as part of Fundsdirect’s single platform offering to the industry.”
In addition to software, Investia is also providing technical consulting, project management, support and maintenance services. “This new version of Investia’s Javelin product has significant attributes in fulfilling fund trading requirements,” says Sean Ewing, Chief Executive of Fundsdirect. “Through the Adviser Platform we aim to deliver the most efficient processes across multiple product sets to facilitate the needs of Advisers and their clients.”
Fundsdirect, which set up the first fund supermarket in the UK, was acquired by Egg at the beginning of 2002. In December 2002 Prudential acquired a 15% share in Fundsdirect. Egg currently retains the other 85%.Fundsdirect has built a reputation for offering funds at significantly discounted costs. The consumer fund supermarket offers approximately 1,500 funds from over 80 individual fund managers.