In a statement, IMAP chairman Toby Potter said this growing segment of the wealth management market lacks industry-wide data standards that would benefit users and providers.
“With the rapid growth of managed accounts in the financial services industry, model data is being electronically distributed between all participants. However, no standard is in place for the definition or formats for this data,” Mr Potter said. “This leads to bespoke development, greater risk of error and higher cost of integration.”
Investment managers find it difficult to operate with multiple bespoke data standards in use, Mr Potter suggested – a problem he said is likely to get worse as the sector grows.
The industry working group will be made up of both institutional and non-institutional platform and managed account providers including AMP, Bennelong, BT, Colonial First State, IOOF, IRESS, Lonsec, Macquarie, Netwealth and Praemium.
“Since managed accounts are still a relatively new market, this seems the right time to establish a common standard,” Mr Potter said. “We are not trying to create a binding standard, but it will provide a useful incentive to prevent further proliferation in proprietary specifications.”
IMAP will be holding the inaugural InvestTech portfolio management technology conference in Sydney on 5 December, with InvestorDaily acting as exclusive media partner.
