JHC is pleased to announce a major development to its market leading product FIGARO to enable fully automated straight through processing (STP) to Cofunds, the leading funds custodian. This replaces a rudimentary file transfer third party product currently used by some FIGARO users.  The new interface provides a transmission and translation service for Cofunds Trade Input and Output messages, in a secure format. This interface is currently in the process of being deployed in a number of FIGARO sites.

JHC is continually investing in the development and enhancement of FIGARO to provide new and improved functionality and performance.   FIGARO is a truly market-leading solution, which allows our clients to remain competitive in their market and protect their investment in technology.  The automated interface with Cofunds further enhances the FIGARO offering, and provides time and cost savings for clients in the handling of funds transactions within their client portfolios.   FIGARO is a fully integrated STP solution and is unrivalled in its depth and richness of functionality and process automation.  Leading stock broking and wealth management firms deploy FIGARO as their core integrated front to back solution for equity and funds trading.

Peter Murphy, Head of Figaro Product Development says: “The ability to be able to offer direct messaging links to Cofunds is great news to our clients as it gives them immediate access to an extensive range of funds available in the UK, as well as saving our clients time and money.  We are also pleased to support our clients who have introduced automated portfolio management, to create rebalancing with straight through processing for both equity and funds trading”

Matthew Ferman, Head of Institutional Product Development at Cofunds said: “A large number of our existing and prospective client base use the Figaro system, which is why we’ve identified this as a key strategic partnership to offer straight through processing. We’ve developed seamless data integration, providing Figaro users with an ‘out of the box’ solution to their fund administration problems.

Cofunds, the leading independent platform for financial services, rolls out the latest of its proposition developments with the announcement that it has appointed Barclays Stockbrokers Limited as its new exclusive provider of stockbroking facilities to Cofunds’ clients.

The Cofunds Stock Trading Service is currently being piloted with 10 pilot accounts and provides advisers with online access to Barclays Stockbrokers via the Cofunds website.  The move allows clients to access multiple asset classes such as stocks, bonds, exchange traded funds and investment trusts, and trade these on behalf of their investor clients.

Money can be transferred from the Cofunds Cash Account to Barclays Stockbrokers and vice versa or directly by the client by bank transfer, debit card or direct debit.

Alastair Conway, Sales & Marketing Director at Cofunds said: “When we launched our RDR roadmap in September last year we said we would pilot a stocktrading service, and true to our word we have done just that. With advisers wanting to consolidate their client’s holdings on a single platform, this new service will offer greater investment choice.

“With Barclays Stockbrokers being the largest execution-only stockbroker in the UK, they are able to improve on the best price available at the time of execution through the ‘Barclays Stockbrokers Price Improver®’ facility which in  2011*, beat the best price in the market 88% of the time, saving investors an average of £11.39 a trade.  Cofunds’ clients are now able to benefit from this.”

Rupert Dickinson, Head of Barclays Stockbrokers, said “This venture with Cofunds will provide access to an holistic investment range through two complementary, multiple award-winning businesses, offering advisors and their clients greater choice in a simple and cost effective manner.”

Money flows through Cofunds’ institutional service show that bonds were strong across all client types in Q4 last year. Bond funds were especially popular with execution only clients, accounting for the top three funds, and amongst wealth managers, three of the five highest-selling funds were in this sector.

Product providers (accounting for the underlying collectives within their pension, bond and SIPP wrappers) and execution-only clients both favoured Corporate Bond over the course of the last quarter, with M&G Strategic Corporate Bond fund achieving pole position across both of these clients. Wealth managers however looked towards European Collective Investment Vehicles.

Christopher James, Director, Institutional Services at Cofunds said: “Bond sectors were universally popular in Q4 and this trend was particularly prevalent with execution only clients.

“Newton Global Higher Income again featured in the top 20 funds for all three client types. While this was the only fund to achieve this in Q3, last quarter M&G Optimal Income also appeared in this top percentage across execution only clients, wealth managers and protection providers.”

Charlotte Banks gives an insight into a week at MRM, giving all the gossip from the working week while highlighting what news has interested MRM over the past seven days

Happy New Year from everyone at MRM and a warm welcome to 2012.

The New Year is traditionally seen as a time to make new resolutions, the majority of which are usually broken within a few weeks! My new year’s resolution was to be healthier so I have entered myself into the Eastbourne Half Marathon in March- a decision I am already regretting – wish me luck.

It seems I’m not alone in my quest to improve my fitness; according to a new study getting fit is the second most popular news year’s resolution in Britain. For the full list take a look at this article by the Daily Mail. For those looking for any help sticking to their resolutions the Telegraph has come up with a number of apps to help with this.

On a more serious note, the New Year is also a time to look to the future. Following a somewhat turbulent 2011, the main question investors, and those in financial services, will be asking is what is in store for 2012 and where will be the best places to invest.

This week a number of our clients have been sharing their views on 2012 with the US and emerging markets sharing the spotlight in terms of best investment bets.

Hersh Cohen, chief investment officer at ClearBridge, a subsidiary of Legg Mason, is backing US equities because of their cheap valuations and rising yields. You can read his full view here

Meanwhile, Terry Ewing, head of US equities at Ignis Asset Management, believes there are a number of reasons to back the US, one being the staggering oil and gas boom seen in the country, which will help the economy rebound in 2012.

Looking to emerging markets, Barclays Capital says that, with emerging market countries forecast to outperform advanced economies over the coming years – albeit with significant variation between regions – investors have an opportunity to benefit from currency appreciation in the medium to long term, as the per capita GDP of the developing world continues to increase.

The New Year can also be a time to reflect and take a look back and Cofunds has done just that in its 2011 highlights round up piece.

If you’d like to speak to any of the above about these views just let us know. We’ll be sending out some other 2012 outlooks next week as well so keep an eye out for them.

Katy Moore gives an insight into a week at MRM, giving all the gossip from her working week while highlighting what news has interested MRM over the past seven days

This has been quite a week of protests. The story dominating the news over the past couple of days is the eviction of Dale Farm which has almost seen the protesters put up more of a fight than the actual residents. And then the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread across the globe and has made it as far as London, under the banner OccupyLSX (London Stock Exchange). They have currently set up camp at St Paul’s Cathedral which isn’t actually the home of the stock exchange. MRM’s own Michael Taggart has a lot more to say on this subject, which you can read here.

At MRM Towers we have been happily protest-free, although certain MRM-ers (*cough, Charlotte*) have been trying to start an ‘anti-cold weather’ movement. I’ll be honest, they have not managed to drum up a huge amount of support just yet…

Last night was the Cofunds annual dinner which saw some members of our team don their gladrags for a night at the St Pancras Hotel with 250 other guests. My spies tell me that the night was a great success and a jolly good time was had by all.

Now we have spoken many times about media and how it is changing. We tend to get our breaking news from either Twitter or news sites rather than actually waiting for a paper these days. Well the Guardian has gone one step further by inviting its readers to influence the news stories that make it into the paper. Their open newslist essentially shows the stories they are currently working on, save for embargoed stories and exclusives obviously. Readers can then give their feedback as well as suggest different lines of enquiry via Twitter. Truly groundbreaking and something figures from all industries should certainly keep an eye on. Time will tell if other publications follow suit.

And finally, some very distressing news was announced earlier in the week. After 14 years in the industry and countless covers, Westlife have announced they are splitting. I think the 13-year-old girl in all of us shed a tear at this sad news. But never fear, Steps have reunited and are currently top of the album chart! Honestly, what is the world coming to..?

In addition, M&G Optimal Income – a Strategic Bond fund managed by Richard Woolbough – was the best-selling fund on the platform last month. This is a popular fund on Cofunds, but the first month in 2011 that it actually reached pole position.

Cautious Managed continued its reign as the highest-selling sector, attracting 48 per cent of net sales. Three of the top five funds were in this category (see table below).

Michelle Woodburn, Manager, Fund Group Relations said: “Money Market funds jumped considerably in December, with 9 per cent of net sales, although remained in small net outflow when looking at 2011 overall. Within this sector Aviva Cash attracted most adviser interest and featured in the top five funds by retail net sales overall.

“Equity sales however, did not finish the year strongly. Europe (-7%), UK All Companies (-5%), UK Equity Income (-5%), Specialist (-2%) and UK Smaller Companies (-1.4%) were all in net outflow. While the UK All Companies and UK Equity Income sectors both brought in reasonable levels of new business, their net position was dragged down last month by high redemptions.”

As we start a new year, a momentous one in RDR terms, we thought it would be helpful to restate our position.  Our strong and profitable foundation means we don’t need to worry about whether we’re a wrap or a supermarket – what we are is a broad investment services business meeting the needs of three core customer segments; investor, wealth and enterprise.  Our scale and evolution allows us to let our clients choose which elements of our proposition they require to meet their needs.

In short, Cofunds is one platform with multiple propositions that flex to the needs of our clients and we can do this as we have a track record in developing our proposition to meet the wide and changing needs of a growing range of clients as the market has evolved.

Our size, now at £35bn AUA, and longevity, give us competitive advantage and we will continue to use our commercial strength to secure benefits for our customers – we are in this to help them make investing easier and that includes embracing simplicity, transparency and ease of use.

January:

• Doubled team dedicated to RDR support
• Exceeded £30bn AUA

February

• Improved payment system to allow the automatic sale of investments to cover adviser fees
• Launched market-leading pension consolidation tool
• Selected to power moneysupermarket.com’s new execution-only service

March

• 10^th anniversary – started life as a simple fund supermarket for ISAs and investment fund trading  back in 2001, evolved significantly into a sophisticated, scalable and profitable platform for financial planning, with an enviable market share.
• Martin Davis announced as new Chief Executive Officer

April

• Became first retail platform provider to produce an accredited AAF 01/06 controls report

May

• Posted £20.2m profit for 2010
• Mike Preston appointed as Head of expanded Platform Consultancy team
• Edward James appointed as Head of New Business Development for the institutional service

June

• Martin Davis took the helm

July

• Appointed as joint custodian for PSigma Investment Management
• Announced 15% increase in gross sales in the first 6 months of 2011
• Enhanced risk planning tool with streamlined psychometric risk profiling questionnaires
• Appointed to provide dealing, settlement and sub-custodian services in support of SEI’s Global Wealth Services

September

• Unveiled new pricing model
• Bradley Lewis appointed as Business Development Manager of the institutional team
• Paul Miller appointed as Risk and Compliance Director

October

• Jim Clay joins as Business Development Manager for the adviser service
• Announced Andy Coleman appointed as Head of Sales for the wealth channel  and starts in the new year

November

• Outperformed the rest of the market for the tenth consecutive quarter- posted a record £4.6 billion and £3.3 billion respectively, according to Fundscape’s Platform Report
• Launched Junior ISA
• Appointed Barclays Stockbrokers Ltd as exclusive partner for provision of stockbroking facilities
  • Appointed Avanade as preferred IT services partner
  • Appointed as fund custodian for Vestra Wealth

December

• Appointed as fund custodian for Reyker Securities Plc and Vestra Wealth
• Ended the year with £35bn of AUA against a backdrop of falling markets

Reyker, which provides a range of bespoke services to banks and financial institutions, alongside professional private investor services from dealing and safe custody to discretionary wealth management, chose Cofunds after a comprehensive review of the market.

Lisa Burrows, Head of Settlements at Reyker said: “Cofunds’ AAF accredited institutional service will provide a one stop shop solution and allows us to simplify our administration and reduce risk. Using Cofunds offers significant operational efficiencies which will enable us to further enhance the service we provide our clients.”

Christopher James, Director, Institutional Services at Cofunds, said:

“Reyker rightly takes pride in the high standards of its service, so with our experience and track record in reducing dealing and settlement risk and increasing administrative efficiency, we know that this partnership will add significant value to their client service.”

Gilts also proved popular, with UK Gilts and UK Index-Linked Gilts taking a combined 22 per cent of net sales – well over double their allocation for October. The Global sector was the third most favoured area for investment with 12 per cent of net sales last month. Funds focussing on income and dividends still proved most sought-after in this sector, with both M&G Global Dividend and Newton Global Higher Income in the top ten selling funds on the platform (see table below).

Michelle Woodburn, Manager, Fund Group Relations said: “While advisers continued to concentrate on Cautious Managed, prolonged volatility in the market saw Money market funds account for 8 per cent of net sales. This is their highest monthly market share for 2011.

“Market instability also meant that various sectors went from positive to significant negative net sales territory in November, including UK All Companies (-14 per cent of net sales), UK Equity Income (-12 per cent), Specialist (-7 per cent) and Active Managed (-4 per cent).”

The addition to the Cofunds service of RADAR, a global macro fund which expresses the views of Barclays Capital’s independent 850-strong international research team, is part of an ongoing drive by BCFS to increase the accessibility of the fund, now available on a number of leading platforms.

Commenting on the addition of the fund to the Cofunds platform, Nathan Bance, Director in UK Investor Solutions, Barclays Capital, said: “The BCFS RADAR fund continues to gain ground among wealth managers seeking exposure to an absolute return strategy with a record of delivering positive returns year after year.

“With demand growing we have been seeking to increase RADAR’s availability and we are pleased to offer the fund though the Cofunds institutional service.”

Since launch in February 2009, RADAR has generated a net return of 38.99% with volatility of 11.34%.² Over one year, the fund has returned 7.10%, ranking it tenth out of 76 funds in its sector.³