Altus

With a well documented shift to DC schemes, more emphasis on self-investment and current pension fund assets of £1.6 trillion under management, it is no surprise to see the industry looking to streamline the pension investment process.

The recently agreed ViaNova market practice addresses the handling of investment instructions and reporting between scheme administrators and fund managers. The aim is to replace the exchange of faxes and e-mails with ISO20022 XML messages transmitted over the SWIFT network.

The new market practice represents an opportunity to streamline the process thereby reducing administrative costs, eliminating operational risks and providing a more responsive service to clients. Unsurprisingly, the largest pension and fund administrators have been first to adopt the market practice, but ViaNova support is gathering momentum among smaller administrators and is increasingly seen as a prerequisite for winning new business.

Whilst much of the initial focus has been on message formats and transmission protocols there are much broader issues involved in adopting the new market practice. Message transmission is just one link in the business process and unless every link is addressed then the benefits of STP will not be realised.

Altus offer ViaNova compliant products for both pension and fund administrators enabling them to automate the end-to-end investment process without the need for expensive development projects. We are helping our clients understand the wider implications of adopting ViaNova and to make the most of the opportunity it presents.