Xafinity launch STP in record time
14th Oct '09
Less than eight weeks after announcing their Straight Through Processing (STP) initiative, Xafinity Paymaster have started live trading with fund managers using the Altus Instruction Gateway and the ViaNova market practice. ViaNova allows pension administrators to send investment instructions to fund managers electronically over the SWIFT secure financial messaging network. By automating the investment process, administrators can offer a more efficient service to clients and drastically reduce the risks associated with manual processing. Xafinity has implemented the market practice in full including the issue and confirmation of investment instructions, pricing reports and holding statements.
Altus has strived to make the adoption of STP simpler, quicker and more economic for pension administrators. Until now adopting ViaNova has often been a long and expensive process with deployment projects running for many months, or in some cases, over a year. The perceived cost and implementation complexity have made the ViaNova/STP business case a difficult one in the current financial climate. However, by offering a complete solution via their hosted service, Altus has dramatically lowered the barrier to entry.
Ben Cocks, Products Director at Altus said: “STP doesn’t have to be expensive and it doesn’t necessarily require a long deployment project. Even against the demanding requirements of Xafinity we’ve shown that we can deliver in very short timescales. The market has been waiting for a comprehensive off-the-shelf solution for STP and with the release of our Altus Instruction Gateway hosted service we are already beginning to see a new wave of administrators adopting ViaNova.”
Rob Campbell, Investment Control Manager at Xafinity Paymaster, commented: “The days of standing by the fax machine wondering if the transaction will be processed on time are truly a thing of the past. With Altus AIG you can monitor the status of individual transactions through all stages of the process. AIG offers a secure, efficient and user friendly step change in TPA transaction management. The hosted service implementation offers an accelerated and technically uncomplicated delivery path that has exceeded all expectations”.
Matt Pittman, Director of Operations at Xafinity Paymaster, said: “Our hope is that this rapid project delivery can spur both the market and the investment management community to adopt new standards in relation to these processes. A joined up approach between STP and the cash settlement process is critical to delivering defined contribution scheme members the levels of customer service that they should expect of their providers.”
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