Product news - BT claims a first for funds management

BT Funds Management has become the first fund manager in Australia to offer a managed fund that only requires an electronic signature.

BT Funds Management has become the first fund manager in Australia to offer a managed fund that only requires an electronic signature.

BTFM’s move follows a ruling by ASIC in February that cleared the way for fund managers to allow electronic applications for managed funds.

As reported in Money Management at the time, ASIC Policy Statement 150 al-lowed investors to bypass the current method of lodging a physical prospectus containing a signature by submitting a prospectus via the Internet.

Under the BT prospectus, an investor need not download and print out an applica-tion, sign it and send it back to BT. The investor can fill out an application on the BT site and simply press send on completion of the form.

The system uses the B-Pay payment service and is only available on BT’s TIME fund which invests in technology companies around the world.

The fully electronic prospectus is a milestone for the industry. It is the first time it has been done in Australia and BT says it may be one of the first fully electronic prospectuses in the world.

At the moment, investors may be using online applcations when they are a member of a wrap account, but there is usually already a relationship with the fund manager and a signature held by a fund manager or a financial planner. In the new system, the online prospectus may be the first contact the investor has with the fund man-ager.

The new system is sure to be taken up by a number of other players in the industry, particularly as the funds management becomes the next big thing for online bro-kers.

However, BT Funds Management stresses that the initiative is not an indication of a shift in distribution strategy to favour direct investors.

“It’s important to note that online applications for BT is not about increasing flows through a new distribution channel,” BT says.

“It is about offering current distribution channels with their respective pricing structures an easier way to invest. We set up this capability because our clients (advisers and investors) are demanding it.”

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