The total automation rate of orders processed by Luxembourg transfer agents grew by 3 percentage points to 69% in fourth quarter of 2008. The share of manual orders fell only 3% in the fourth quarter of 2008 to 31% in the first half of 2009.

The percentage of automated orders based on the ISO messaging standard remained at 41% in volume terms, according to data from the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA) and SWIFT published in a mid-year status report looking at progress on standardization rates in the first half of 2009.

The percentage of automation is expected to increase in the second half of 2009 with the introduction of 62 new ISO automated links coming on stream compared with 17 new proprietary file transfer links.

The European Union is keen to increase the rate of standardisation and automaton within Europe and with other regions. For example, the total automation rate in the Asia-Pacific region reached 45% during the first half of 2009, compared to 36% in the fourth quarter 2008. The ISO adoption rate in the region is now 10% in volume terms, compared to 8% in the last quarter of 2008. During the period 5.8 million orders were processed by contributors to the EU survey during the first half of 2009 with 34% from Asia-Pacific.

“The results confirm the importance taken by Asia/Pacific in boosting demand for Ucits in recent months,” noted Peter De Proft, EFAMA director general. “Even if the total automation rate of orders from Asia/Pacific is rising, it remains very low. It is a priority of EFAMA to engage with all relevant stakeholders to find solutions to promote greater efficiency in the processing of cross-border funds.”

EFAMA is the representative association for the European investment management industry and through 26 member associations and 44 corporate members who represent approximately €11 trillion in assets under management of which €6.4 trillion was managed by approximately 53,000 funds at the end of June 2009. Just over 37,000 of these funds were Ucits funds.

SWIFT is a member-owned co-operative that provides the communications platform, products and services to connect over 8,500 banking organisations, securities institutions and corporate customers in more than 200 countries.