See also:

Getting ready for ESG Standards V17

FundSERV responds to V16 lessons

ESG V17 events starting soon

ESG V17 Timelines

All articles

By Erin Bardua

Here are a few facts you may not know about the advance of alternative products in the investment fund industry:

• The number of hedge fund manufacturers has doubled in the last two years and tripled in the last three.
  
  
• In the last two years, two thirds of all new manufacturers that joined FundSERV were non-mutual/segregated fund companies.
  
  
• Today, nearly one quarter of manufacturers on FundSERV are note or hedge companies; five years ago, this number was only five per cent.
  
  
• In the last five years, the compound annual growth rate of hedge fund assets in Canada has increased nearly 41 per cent; by contrast, assets of stand-alone investment (mutual and segregated) funds have grown less than 4 per cent (source: Investor Economics).

It's no surprise that FundSERV is responding to its customers' need for faster, safer hedge fund transactions. New automation for these products is being added to V17 for implementation in 2006.

Although FundSERV provides partial automation for these alternative products today, hedge and linked-notes customers rely on manual workarounds to complete their transaction processing. These workarounds add time, cost, and risk to their business. Since reducing these factors for its customers is FundSERV's mandate, the Company has pledged to keep pace with current and future market demand to automate the processing of alternative funds.

Here's a rundown of the standards enhancements planned for these customers:

Pricing Models

• New flexibility in pricing allows price to be set by transaction type, not just at the fund level.
  
  
• Custom pricing dates can be set throughout the calendar instead of strict schedules.

Transaction Windows

• Customers can set a cutoff day prior to the trade date, rather than just a cutoff time on the trade date.

Fund Profiles

• New Web-based product update tool to provide customized information for the fund setup (FD) file.

Table of Contents