The company said the new service, which is due to launch in the first quarter of 2006, will combine the order-routing functionality of its cross-border fund-processing platform, FundSettle, with the custody and settlement services of its securities processing system RGV/Relit+.
The platform is being developed with the aim of enabling the French central securities depository (CSD) to offer a fully integrated fund-processing service that will allow investment fund transactions to be processed on a straight-through basis.
According to Euroclear, the new project is part of a broader strategy that will ultimately be rolled out across the other ies (CSDs) in the Euroclear group.
An automated order-routing system linked to Euroclear France’s own custody and settlement infrastructure will greatly help to improve the competitiveness of France’s fund sector and to promote more widely the CSD model for fund processing in Europe, commented Bruno Prigent, moderator of trade organization AFTI’s depository working group
Over the next three years, annual growth rates of third-party fund distribution in France are expected to be in excess of 10%. As a result, automation of the order-routing process has become a top priority for the French fund industry.
