Investec Wealth & Investment has gone live with Calastone’s Transfer Service solution for automating stock transfers.
Calastone created its Transfer Service in response to a need to better facilitate nominee-to-nominee transfers and speed up the transfer process, as required under the Retail Distribution Review. It can also help to improve efficiency and reduce costs for clients.
Jon Willis, chief commercial officer at Calastone, said: “The service should give a level of operational efficiency which will be beneficial for the practitioner, will reduce risks and give a better audit trail, which is always useful from a compliance aspect.”
“However, we also have to remember the consumer. When someone is making a decision to switch between firms or make a significant transaction, we need to be able to deliver a quick, quality service.”
The service provides a matching solution allowing parties to allege and accept transfers. It matches and quality-checks the data, before the transfer is made using ISO 20022 stock transfer messages.
Many transfer agents and fund managers already use ISO 20022 messaging, meaning that the solution only has to be implemented in the back office. Firms can also choose whether to input their data manually or electronically.
Willis said: “We looked at what we already had. Wherever possible, we wanted to re-use messaging that already existed because receivers of those messages can already consume them.”
“We can make the front office processing more simple, and re-use something that all of the transfer agents and fund managers are used to seeing. It means they didn’t need a whole raft of extra testing, new data fields or development.”
“Distributers and brokers can use the service immediately with no IT development on their side if they want to.”
The service means that processing stock transfers could be done in days, or potentially even hours, compared to a matter of weeks.
Ann Mosey, head of settlements at Investec Wealth & Investment, commented: “By connecting to Calastone’s Transfer Service, we look forward to benefitting from the efficiencies that straight-through processing brings. A key goal for us is to undertake and complete transfers for the majority of cases within a day, thus driving valuable operational and cost efficiencies.”
Willis added: “Our industry is challenged on a number of fronts. Organisations like Calastone have to continue to think about how can we create clever solutions that re-use as much existing technology and know-how as possible, to deliver benefits quickly.”
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