About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

EFAMA’s Updated Framework for Fund Processing Best Practices

Subscribe to our newsletter

EFAMA today published new recommendations to increase efficiency in the processing of fund orders. The report was prepared by EFAMA’s Fund Processing Standardisation Group (FPSG). It consolidates the recommendations that were published in 2005 and updated in 2008, and extends the recommendations in two key areas.

Transfers of units between two accounts recorded in the legal register of fund holders are generally instructed using physical documents and faxes. As such, they require manual intervention, which makes them resource intensive and exposes them to the risk of human error. Moreover, their processing is usually not time-critical, leading to delays that can have a knock-on impact on a custodian’s ability to service their client effectively. The report makes concrete recommendations to improve communication between the actors involved, shorten processing timelines, thereby reducing the risk of human error.

The report discusses various aspects in relation to events that arise from or have an impact upon holdings of units in an investment fund. These events include fund reorganisations, income entitlements, unit holder meetings and other investor notifications. The recommendations aim at improving communication with the wider market in order that underlying investors and their services agents are able to receive and process the information in a timely fashion.

The report encompasses the full scope of activities that were envisaged when the FPSG was formed. To highlight the value of the FPSG’s recommendations for the industry, the report also includes a series of quotes from senior industry stakeholders.

Peter De Proft, director general of EFAMA, adds: “With the publication of this new report, EFAMA confirms its central role in leading the European fund industry’s efforts to make fund processing simpler and more automated. Harmonising fund processing practices in the direction recommended by the FPSG and accelerating convergence towards the proposed standards represent an effective approach for reducing operating costs and serving the interests of investors. We are encouraged by feedback received that the FPSG’s recommendations are taken seriously by market participants and infrastructure providers. Still, progress towards full implementation could be faster. We therefore call upon our member associations to accompany the release of this report with specific actions to foster a higher degree of convergence at national level, taking into account their specific challenges.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Strategies and solutions for unlocking value from unstructured data

27 March 2025 11:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes Unstructured data accounts for a growing proportion of the information that capital markets participants are using in their day-to-day operations. Technology – especially generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) – is enabling organisations to prise crucial insights from sources – such as social...

BLOG

Taking the Temperature of the Data Management Industry

When you have the leading names in data management gathered in one New York City hall, it would be remiss not to ask them how they view some of the most pressing issues facing the industry today. So, that’s exactly what A-Team Group did at our 14th annual Data Management Summit in the city. We seized...

EVENT

TradingTech Summit London

Now in its 14th year the TradingTech Summit London brings together the European trading technology capital markets industry and examines the latest changes and innovations in trading technology and explores how technology is being deployed to create an edge in sell side and buy side capital markets financial institutions.

GUIDE

Regulatory Data Handbook 2024 – Twelfth Edition

Welcome to the twelfth edition of A-Team Group’s Regulatory Data Handbook, a unique and useful guide to capital markets regulation, regulatory change and the data and data management requirements of compliance. The handbook covers regulation in Europe, the UK, US and Asia-Pacific. This edition of the handbook includes a detailed review of acts, plans and...