Susanna Pärlfjärd, product manager at Euroclear Sweden, sees benefits through digitalisation and automation of the fund market

A great number of benefits are achieved through greater digitalisation and automation of the Swedish fund market. Euroclear Sweden has been working for several years to simplify banks' and fund companies' administrations and now sees additional benefits in introducing a central register for fund units.

"We want fund distribution to be easy and as straightforward as for other financial products, says Susanna Pärlfjärd, Product Manager at Euroclear Sweden.

Trades in Swedish equities are settled and registered centrally at a central securities depository. This is done following standard market practices and procedures, whereas funds trades are registered and settled at each fund company, according to different procedures.

For example, if a bank wants to be able to offer a wide range of funds to its customers, it involves managing many different counterparties and procedures. This in turn can lead to different costs and a limited range of funds being offered to the customer.

"We see great value in funds being managed in the same way as other types of securities. A central  register for fund units would enable fund distributors to manage their securities processes in a uniform manner and achieve important operational synergies, says Susanna Pärlfjärd.

Euroclear Sweden currently manages different types of securities such as shares, warrants and bonds in its securities system. We manage the settlement of trades and corporate actions, updating the shareholder registers accordingly. Euroclear Sweden has over 1400 companies as clients, including all Swedish stock exchange listed companies. The infrastructure, comprising standards, rules and systems, is therefore already in place and could also be applied to fund units.

"The Central Securities Depository's overall objective is to promote stability, security and efficiency. That is what we, together with our customers, focus on in order to make the Swedish financial market more efficient", says Susanna Pärlfjärd.

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