CheckFree Investment Services Launches Real Time Account Opening as First Phase of NewGen Program with Merrill Lynch
Wednesday March 10, 9:00 am ET
-- Initiative Drives Innovation and Efficiency in the Separately Managed Account Industry Toward a 50 Percent Cost Reduction Objective --
ATLANTA and JERSEY CITY, N.J., March 10 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CheckFree Investment Services, a division of CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR - News), today announced the availability of APL Workflow for New Accounts. Workflow for New Accounts is the first module of the multi-million dollar upgrade of CheckFree APL, called NewGen. APL Workflow for New Accounts will streamline the investment management process by enabling the industry's first real-time new account open function between managers and sponsors.
Bob Rubino, a director of Merrill Lynch's Managed Accounts Solutions Group, explains, "Funding an account instantly gets an investor's account working for them immediately. The elimination of paper-based and e-mail communications improves accuracy and timeliness. The benefits over batch processing are significant." CheckFree APL Workflow for New Accounts is being implemented initially in conjunction with Merrill Lynch to support its ongoing efforts to drive operational efficiencies for its managers. Three leading money managers in the Merrill Lynch Consults program are beta testing the functionality.
The goal of the broader NewGen initiative is to enhance the reliability, efficiency, business process workflow, and usability of APL. As part of this process, CheckFree Investment Services is leveraging the Six Sigma experience and methodology that drives the industry-leading internetwork efficiency of CheckFree's electronic billing and payment platform. By applying the Sigma discipline to the SMA market, CheckFree Investment Services will increase quality and value to position customers to deliver increasing service and value to investors. Today, the average separately managed account costs $250 per year to maintain. With the NewGen program, CheckFree intends to cut those costs by 50 percent. The next functional areas to be addressed in the NewGen platform are Galaxy Trading, Reconciliation and an Advisor Workstation.
As reported in the November MMI Meeting, the Separate Account Market is projected to grow to $4 Trillion by 2007. To support that growth, Investment Managers need to streamline their operations and reduce costs. CheckFree's investment in New Gen will enable the efficient growth of the industry. CheckFree also continues to invest in its network hub supporting the communications among Managers and Sponsors. Over the last year, more than 300 new interfaces have been established with Extract, Transform, & Load (ETL) capabilities yielding improved efficiency for managers and sponsors.
Cheryl Nash, formerly vice president of the CheckFree Investment Services brokerage business unit, is leading the project team of dedicated professionals working on the New Gen project. Work on platform conversion began 18 months ago with extensive participant requirement research and technology development. The project will span the next two to three years. . .
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