Automation Rates for Funds Processing Rise to 69%
EFAMA, SWIFT funds processing report highlights automation trends; ISO messaging standard ranks high among survey participants
New funds processing report from SWIFT and EFAMA illustrates Europe’s eagerness to embrace automation and standardisation for funds processing. The report highlights key trends and figures in support of automation and standardisation using ISO 20022 message formats as well as historical comparisons to 2007 and 2008.
Key Report Highlights:
- The total automation rate of orders processed by Luxembourg transfer agents has grown by almost four percentage points to reach 69% in 2009. Consequently, the share of manual orders fell from 34% in 2008 to 31% in 2009.
- The total automation rate is significantly higher in Europe than in the Asia-Pacific region (73% compared to 46%). In both regions, however, the automation rate of orders increased by about 10 percentage points in the group of transfer agents providing a breakdown of data by region.
- The percentage of automated orders based on the ISO messaging standard increased to 45% in volume terms. This is an increase of 4.3 percentage points compared to 2008. In 2009, survey contributors reported 130 new ISO automated links making it the number one option for automation. This is compared to 24 new proprietary file transfer links.
- The share of orders coming from Asia reached 35% in 2009. This is an increase of 5 percentage points compared to 2008.
- 4.1 million orders were manually processed by survey contributors in 2009, compared to 5.4 million in 2008.
Peter De Proft, EFAMA Director General, notes: “The reduction in the share of manual orders and ensuing rise in ISO automation rate are very encouraging developments. We hope this trend will continue in 2010, especially in the cross-border fund business with Asia which continue to rely too much on manual orders.”
Michèle De Boe, Markets Management - Funds, SWIFT, adds: “The great progress with the ISO adoption rate in 2009 reflects the strong commitment of Luxembourg fund companies and transfer agents. These organizations have taken a leadership role towards adoption of the EFAMA recommendations of ISO as a single standard for fund processing. We are thrilled with the results since 2007 and look forward to working in close partnership with market players and EFAMA again to exceed the 50% mark by the end of 2010.”
The goal of this report is to inform the European Commission, the European Parliament and other interested stakeholders on an ongoing basis about the European fund industry’s progress towards greater standardisation and automation. The report was based on interviews with 21 Luxembourg-based transfer agents, which covers close to 80 percent of total Luxembourg order volumes – the largest cross border market in Europe.
The next report is due out at the end of September and will include updated automation and standardisation figures covering the first half of the year.
Please click here for a full copy of the report.
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