BGI Goes Live with HSBC for Automated Managed Funds Processing Using SWIFT Funds
Australian investment manager, Barclays Global Investors (BGI), has gone live with automated funds transaction processing using SWIFT Funds.
It joins local fund market participants HSBC Sub-custody and Clearing, RBC Dexia Investor Services and Vanguard Investments Australia, which have recently adopted automated transaction processing to replace some of the 15,000 wholesale fund application, redemption, confirmation and reporting faxes shared daily among Australia’s funds community.
According to Michael Garrett, head of regional operations, BGI Australia, the SWIFT project allows the firm to focus on providing a better service for its clients and reducing the errors and risks associated with manual processing. “The SWIFT Funds solution is an enabler of our drive to continually explore and implement efficient, risk-reduced processing of client transactions,” he said. “Automating these transactions frees up our staff to answer client queries and focus on our clients in a pro-active manner rather than be reactive. We can also leave our system running to accept and process orders, knowing that the details are accurate while we monitor for any exceptions.”
Peter Snodgrass, head of securities services, HSBC Securities Services Australia, said: “We are pleased to add Barclays Global Investors as a counterparty with whom we can automate our managed funds transactions across SWIFT. We are now seeing the significant benefits of automation with further reduction in processing risks, allowing us to enhance service to our clients. We look forward to working with other parties as they join us in this initiative.”
HSBC Sub-custody and Clearing, which went live in April 2009, already reports an initial replacement of approximately 100 faxes per day thanks to the new system, and expects to see an increase as more funds managers adopt industry standard automated transaction processing.