The report found that 73% of financial services CEOs believe technology is a key enabler to deliver innovation in financial services and 62% believe technology plays a major role in strategic planning. Top innovation projects identified by CEOs include developing new ways of servicing customers, developing new products and developing new internal back-office processes.

Martin Spedding, CEO, DST Bluedoor said, “The changing operational environment and client demands in financial services are driving firms to innovate and implement technology to develop new products and improve customer service.

“Technology innovations such as implementing mobile applications or web portals and improving internal and back-office processes are essential to better communicate with customers and help firms to maintain or lift market share,” Mr Spedding said.

However, despite technology playing a major role in developing innovation within the financial services sector, over half (55%) of Australian CEOs are spending IT budgets on Business As Usual (BUA) projects as they struggle to comply with regulatory changes.

The survey found that over 50% of those interviewed were spending less than 25% of their IT budgets on innovation projects, 31% were spending between 26-50%, and as few as 14% were devoting over 50% to innovation-focused activity.

While many CEOs said they wish they had more resources to direct to innovation projects, nearly three quarters (73%) believe their technology spend represented value for money, and over half thought their IT spend was about right.

“The continuing need for financial services firms to address regulatory requirements is leaving Australian businesses in a difficult position,” Mr Spedding said. “Many CEOs wish they had more resources to direct to innovative projects to ensure future growth and market efficiencies, but ongoing regulatory changes are absorbing crucial IT spend.”

Looking ahead, the survey revealed 75% of CEOs believe the use of client data will improve products, increase customer service and contribute to strategic thinking.

John Brodgen, CEO of the Financial Services Council said: “Consumers are driving new developments in technology which will play an important role in the future of financial services. Technology will be critical for delivering new products and processes and in helping businesses better understand customer behaviours and goals.

“The challenge for financial services will be to keep abreast of customer needs,” Mr Brogden said.

About the Survey

The Financial Services Council conducts an annual survey of its member CEOs on the key issues affecting their businesses, the financial services sector more broadly, and the Australian economy. This year’s survey focused on the place and importance of innovation in meeting Australia’s changing regulatory environment.

This year, 50 of the FSC’s 73 member CEOs participated in the 2014 FSC-DST CEO Survey that captured their views on innovation within the financial services industry and the role the sector plays in supporting innovation. These views are collected via a member survey, a series of roundtables and, one-on-one interviews. The 2014 survey was undertaken in conjunction with DST.

Click here to read the full report.

The post FSC-DST CEO Survey reveals technology plays major role in delivering innovation appeared first on AdviserVoice.

Greg Sword

DST, a global provider of strategically unified data management, business processing, and customer communication solutions today announced that industry superannuation fund LUCRF Super is utilising DST Bluedoor’s software solutions to successfully meet SuperStream requirements.

LUCRF (Labour Union Co-operative Retirement Fund) Super has implemented DST Bluedoor’s technology to help increase productivity, particularly in the areas of member contribution processing and the maintenance of member accounts. LUCRF has also used DST Bluedoor’s solution to launch a mobile application that allows its members to better manage their superannuation.

Established in 1978 as Australia’s first industry fund, LUCRF has approximately $4 billion in funds under management through its accumulation and pension products. The industry super fund currently has more than 180,000 members and over 16,000 participating employers.

DST Bluedoor, a leading provider of IT solutions for the wealth management industry, has separately developed a messaging gateway and clearing house solution for LUCRF, enabling the fund to run its own gateway and clearing house and integrate those processes to employers at no cost.  Currently, LUCRF is the only fund running its own gateway and clearing house.

Martin Spedding, CEO of DST Bluedoor said LUCRF’s decision to choose DST Bluedoor technology has allowed the fund to set new standards in productivity and helped them to gain a competitive edge over other super funds in terms of its technological capabilities.

“LUCRF has used the DST Bluedoor platform to implement key SuperStream regulatory changes and improve overall efficiency and productivity,” Mr Spedding said. “Bluedoor SuperStream’s extremely flexible design removes the need for organisations to depend on bespoke applications by delivering a complete messaging infrastructure.”

DST Bluedoor’s SuperStream solution was developed and launched in 2013 in response to the Stronger Super reforms. Designed to be a complete messaging solution for superannuation providers to act as their own gateway/hub, DST Bluedoor SuperStream enables its users to send and receive compliant messages and connect with any of the SuperStream gateway providers with no interruption to the back office.

Greg Sword, Chief Executive of LUCRF Super, said the super fund is forging ahead with the use of DST Bluedoor’s technology.

“Before Bluedoor we had over 40 employees processing superannuation contributions,” Mr Sword said. “That number has now dropped to 14. We’ve adopted the DST Bluedoor technology at much less cost than if we outsourced these solutions and, just as importantly, we can control the quality of our operations.”

From 1 July this year, the clearing house solution will become operational, allowing LUCRF to receive a single contribution file from employers and match multiple contribution files against payment records. Using SuperStream data and payment standards, LUCRF’s clearing house can then forward contribution files to the relevant superannuation fund and forward payment files to the banking system.

“We are using the Bluedoor solution to meet SuperStream mandatory messaging requirements, processing rollovers electronically, and in July we will roll out contributions using the SuperStream data and payment standards,” said Mr Sword.

In March 2014, the fund rolled out the LUCRF Mobile App for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry, using Bluedoor mobile app functionality. LUCRF Super Mobile App gives members direct access to their account details so they can check their super balances, track their contributions history, and check how their investments are performing.

“We have plans to develop the app so that members can transact and change their investment choices in the registry system automatically and in real time,” said Mr Sword. “DST Bluedoor has given us the capability to offer members many more investment choices, and it administers those investment choices that members make systematically, so it doesn’t eat up our resources.”

The post LUCRF implements DST Bluedoor technology to meet Superstream challenge appeared first on AdviserVoice.

DST Bluedoor announces enhancements to it’s Superstream product.

DST Bluedoor, a leading global provider of IT solutions for the wealth management industry, yesterday announced an enhancement to Bluedoor and its SuperStream solution that will provide organisations with the ability to act as an independent clearing house.

The new Clearing House capability will allow superannuation funds to receive a single contribution file from employers or multi-employer file and match multiple contributions against payment receipt records. Superannuation funds can operate a clearing house service, whether in their own right, through their fund administrator, or through a sub-contracted third-party service provider.

The Bluedoor SuperStream & Clearing House solution’s objectives include enabling the clearing house to process default and choice contributions, accepting new member registrations, and allowing single-file upload for both employers and multi-employer contributions.

According to Martin Spedding, CEO of DST Bluedoor, the Clearing House solution was developed to provide the required level of security, address all privacy requirements, and meet the clearing house standards put in place by the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.

“All outbound communication generated by the clearing house to a Bluedoor enabled client or externally to a choice fund will be transmitted using SuperStream-compliant messaging,” says Spedding “This functionality will make it easier for all organisations, whether employers, superannuation funds, or payroll providers, to meet their regulatory obligations that have increased dramatically with SuperStream regulations, MySuper, and employee choice of superannuation fund.”

The new solution was built based on DST Bluedoor’s extensive and proven experience developing superior software solutions for the retirement savings market.

Bluedoor SuperStream was developed and launched in 2013 in response to the Stronger Super reforms. Designed to be a complete messaging solution for superannuation providers to act as their own Gateway/Hub, Bluedoor SuperStream enables its users to send and receive compliant messages and connect with any of the SuperStream gateway providers with no interruption to the back office.

“Bluedoor SuperStream’s open-architecture design provides funds and service providers with a robust and scalable enterprise-wide solution that connects, mediates, and manages all messaging interactions in conformance with the new data and messaging standards,” says Spedding “It’s extremely flexible and removes the need for organisations to depend on bespoke applications by delivering a complete and tightly integrated single messaging infrastructure.”

The Clearing House Solution is set to become operational July 1 this year when the additional new SuperStream requirements for contributions are rolled out for employers with 20 or more employees. The Bluedoor SuperStream and Clearing House functionality is available to Bluedoor customers at no additional charge and can be licenced as a standalone product to Bluedoor for institutions and funds not utilising Bluedoor as their registry system.

The post DST Bluedoor adds clearing house to superstream solution appeared first on AdviserVoice.

DST Bluedoor, a leading global provider of IT solutions for the wealth management industry, yesterday announced that its technology is behind AMP’s successful migration of its retail wealth management platforms onto its flagship North platform, enabling the company to more efficiently manage $24 billion plus in assets and significantly cut costs.

In 2010, AMP merged its business with AXA Asia Pacific Holdings. The transaction was a joint proposal with AXA Group under which AMP bought AXA’s Australia and New Zealand business. The AMP Board subsequently confirmed a strategic initiative to modernise the retail platform business and move iAccess, Generations and Summit products to the North platform, powered by Bluedoor, which has now been completed.

With the migration to DST’s Bluedoor system complete, AMP’s retail platform business will now have a single web portal solution through its North platform with total assets under management (AUM) of $24.1 billion, according to AMP’s 2013 Full Year Investor Report released this week.

The migration has been one of the biggest consolidations in the platform industry, with the transfer of 131,000 customers and more than $14 billion in funds under advice (FUA) to the North platform technology.

Martin Spedding, Executive Director of DST Bluedoor, said the successful migration of iAccess to Bluedoor in November, followed by Generations and Summit early this year, would improve AMP’s operational efficiency substantially. The decision to choose Bluedoor followed strong financial advisor plaudits for the North platform, launched in 2007, as well as the significant cost savings achieved.

“Advisors are now able to access all retail platform products from a single platform, making their lives substantially easier, and AMP has been able to significantly cut its software and administrative processing costs and streamline its operations,” Mr Spedding said.

“The wrap platform’s attractive features, as well as real-time, straight-through processing, have helped to spur on incredible growth for the North platform,” Mr Spedding said.

AMP uses all aspects of the Bluedoor solution, including administration registry, workflow, imaging, web portal, correspondence and reporting.  Bluedoor is a web solution that features fully integrated components, including adviser, employer and investor web portals, direct equity trading, model portfolios and term deposit straight-through processing.

AMP said this week the North platform has struck $10 billion in FUA, a fivefold increase since it launched as a full wrap platform with $2 billion in FUA in 2011. North posted net cash flows of $4.1 billion in the 2012-13 financial year, up by $1.9 billion from 2011-12, representing growth of 89%.

Generations and iAccess are low-cost investment solutions for investors with relatively simple investment needs, while the Summit product range provides a sophisticated suite of investment options—including managed funds and direct shares—within a single investment vehicle.

Mr Spedding said DST Bluedoor’s aim is to deliver innovative software solutions for the Australian and global financial services industry.

“Our solution is world-leading, which is why AMP has adopted Bluedoor as its core platform. We expect strong growth of our business in 2014 in Australia and abroad, as the wealth management industry recognises the value of our Bluedoor product and the huge efficiencies it can introduce,” he said.

Reflecting strong growth, DST Bluedoor’s employee numbers have more than tripled from 65 in 2010 to 230 in February 2014. Earlier this year, DST was selected by investor services provider International Financial Data Services (IFDS) to provide the underlying technology for its growing UK platform administration business.

The post AMP relaunches products on Bluedoor Platform appeared first on AdviserVoice.

SGC inputs up due to the recent increase to 9.25%.

Employers paid a record $15.57 billion into employees’ superannuation accounts in the third quarter of 2013, reflecting the rise in the Superannuation Guarantee to 9.25%, according to gross domestic product (GDP) statistics released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

The data also showed record amounts poured into technology as Australian businesses sought efficiency gains.

DST Bluedoor, a leading global provider of IT solutions for the wealth management industry, said rapid growth in the nation’s retirement savings pool is forcing greater investment in technology by superannuation funds to drive product innovation and productivity gains.

ABS data reveal superannuation contributions made by Australian employers rose 1.2% during the September quarter to a record $15.57 billion from $15.38 billion in the second quarter of 2013. Contributions were up 4.6% from $14.88 billion a year earlier. Employer contributions include Superannuation Guarantee (SG), salary sacrifice and voluntary employer contributions.

Reflecting the rising importance of technology within the economy overall, the seasonally adjusted private software spend rose 1.6% to $3.07 billion in the third quarter of 2013 from $3.02 billion in the second quarter, and jumped 8.1% from a year earlier. The report also indicated that the IT spend has hit record levels for several quarters.

The ABS data has revealed national productivity, as measured by GDP/hour worked in seasonally adjusted terms, did not grow during the third quarter and was up just 0.9% from a year earlier, highlighting a lacklustre performance. The Australian economy grew 0.6% during the September quarter, to be up 2.3% from the September quarter in 2012.

Martin Spedding, Executive Director with DST Bluedoor, said the growth in superannuation savings would force wealth and asset managers to become more efficient, as they seek to keep up with greater regulation and rapid technological changes.

“The nation’s superannuation savings pool is rapidly rising in value, and we can expect it to reach $2 trillion in 2014, from $1.75 billion in the September quarter this year, driven by growing compulsory superannuation contributions and rising asset values. This is forcing superannuation funds, wealth managers and administrators to upgrade their technology solutions to seek efficiencies and automate manual processes,” said Mr Spedding.

“Over the past year, we’ve seen a rise in technology spend by superannuation funds and other financial service organisations and we expect this trend to continue. Indeed, financial service organisations are making solid productivity gains, unlike many other sectors of the Australian economy where productivity has fallen.

“Greater regulation of the superannuation sector through SuperStream regulation and APRA data reporting is only adding to the pressure on superannuation funds to upgrade their technology systems and become more efficient,” Mr Spedding said.

“The superannuation industry, like the banking sector, must improve the consumer experience. Investors are demanding more efficient delivery of financial information, real-time transacting and are using mobile devices more and more. Superannuation funds must meet these challenges in 2014 in order to stay competitive,” he said.

Mr Spedding said DST Bluedoor’s aim is to continue to deliver innovative software solutions for the financial services industry that helps clients grow revenues and significantly cut costs.

The post Super Guarantee hike leads to record $15.57 billion in employer super contributions appeared first on AdviserVoice.