The Australian Securities Exchange's (ASX) proposed new trading platform will enable boutique fund managers to become more competitive with institutionally-owned managers as it gives them access to a new form of distribution, a number of managers have said.

"We believe it's a very positive development," Microequities chief executive Carlos Gill said.

"The platform will help empower investors by eliminating some of the entrenched inequities in the present institutionally-dominated platforms.

"We believe that our Deep Value Microcap Fund would be well suited to a platform that will remove some of the current restrictive barriers of entry in the traditional platforms."

Bennelong Funds Management was also positive about the new platform.

"We do see this as an opportunity and are likely to participate," Bennelong chief executive Jarrod Brown said.

Eley Griffiths portfolio manager and owner Brian Eley said he expected to see efficiencies from the new system if it was able to feed straight into financial planning systems such as Xplan and Coin.

"We would welcome it as a facilitation mechanism to make the applications and redemptions process more streamlined for investors," Eley said.

The new platform, which is based on the ASX's Aqua technology, is still in its development stage.

It will not only quote prices of units in managed funds, but also allow for the settlement of trades in these units. This would make it possible to trade managed fund units in much the same way as exchange-traded funds are currently traded.

The ASX approached a number of fund managers in the past 12 months to gauge their interest in the new system. It is expected the new platform will be operational by the second half of 2011.