Electronic hub launched for managed funds industry

Investment administrator Ausmaq together with business partners Accenture, Microsoft Financial Services, Intel and Web Central yesterday launched mainhub, an electronic hub for the Australian managed funds industry.

Fully supporting the MFundEC standards developed by theInvestment and Financial Services Association(IFSA), the service provides an electronic messaging platform between managed fund industry participants.

Mainhub will initially offer wholesale applications, redemptions, and execution confirmations, with distributions, retail applications and redemptions to follow as the MFundEC message standards are approved.

With over 1800 products accessible and eight wraps trading through mainhub, to date 25 managers have signed up for the service.

According to Ausmaq chief executive Richard Burrows, mainhub’s web-based interface means users face a low upfront investment, so implementation is virtually risk-free, and it is also easy for companies to exit the system if it fails to meet their needs.

Providing efficiencies in administration is one of the advantages of a service like mainhub, MFundEC Steering Committee chairman Geoff Purcell says.

“Standardising is one of the keys to gaining efficiencies, the next step is the provision of infrastructure through services like mainhub, and then assisting organisations to understand the standards and employ them. Mainhub allows companies to realise the benefits without major investment,” Purcell says.

IFSA chief executive Richard Gilbert also reinforced the association’s support for the MFundEC standards as an issue of key importance for funds managers and master trust and wrap providers going forward.

“There are savings to be made, and now that we’ve got these standards, the industry leaders need to look at their platforms, look at their processes and say ‘how can we adopt these standards so as to communicate with other members and actually reduce our cost base?’,” Gilbert says.