But what next for this popular fund domicile? In March, the Irish government approved in principle the development of legislative proposals for a new corporate structure. The SICAV proposals will meet US regulatory checkbox requirements and reduce administrative costs on funds. This move has been welcomed by the Irish Funds Association, as the proposals seek to develop the funds industry in Ireland further and promote employment and business opportunities.

With the Irish market growing rapidly, in 2011 it attracted some €60 billion in new UCITS monies.  According to the European Fund and Asset Management Association (EFAMA), this is twice as much as all other domiciles put together. In fact, in the last quarter of 2011, Ireland attracted five times more in new UCITS monies than all other domiciles combined.

The new corporate structure for the fund industry is expected to make the region even more attractive to managers on a global basis, especially in the US. Currently, Irish-domiciled funds tend to trade as either public companies or unit trusts. Under the proposals, while the public listed company structure would still be available to fund providers’, there will also be the option of converting to the new framework.

In a recent Deloitte survey of Irish Fund Administrators, respondents identified market uncertainty, regulatory change, cost and fee pressures, operations and service levels as key strategic and operational issues. It is expected that the new structure will lead to lower costs and less administration – a major attraction in the current climate.

EFAMA figures show Luxembourg’s share of the UCITS and non-UCITS market in Europe dropped from 27.4 per cent to 26.5 per cent last year. Ireland’s European market share, meanwhile, rose from 12 per cent to 13.3 per cent. The two leading  jurisdictions are also the main locations for the domicile of UCITS hedge funds and the Irish funds industry’s expertise in traditional hedge funds might give it an edge in attracting hedge fund UCITS.

The proposed legislation is likely to be enacted by the end of 2012, improving the flexibility and attractiveness of the Irish funds industry, well ahead of implementation of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (the proposed European Union law which will put hedge funds and private equity funds under the supervision of an EU regulatory body) in July 2013.

All eyes are on the Irish fund industry; will it continue to go from strength to strength?

Author: Tricia Riddell – Global Head of Product, Transfer Agency, Bravura Solutions

This week, the Celent team have been developing the content for a workshop that we will take to our clients to explore what the world of insurance could like in 2022 once the disruptive effects of today’s technology evolutions take hold, such as cloud, ‘Big Data’, and SoMoLo (Social, Mobile and Local).

Although sometimes in this industry you can feel more like a museum curator than an innovator (especially if like me you focus on the Life, Annuities and Pensions market!), this is genuinely an exciting time to be in insurance technology. Some of these developments are simply explosive and have the potential to change the way the industry operates forever. Of course, with all innovation comes risk, and I suspect that we will see a few expensive failures littered along the way to adoption (and then quickly swept under the carpet) as insurers try to navigate their way through the hype.

For me, however, it’s not just the technology that’s going to force the change. Over the next 10 years, we are going to see a fundamental shift in demographics and with it consumer expectations that will see the coming of age of Generation Y. By 2022, the first wave of Generation Y consumers and workers will hit their 40s. They are likely to be at a key pivotal point in their careers and earning potential, making them a clear target for many marketeers. They are also likely to hold key positions within their organisations – including your own. This is a generation that has grown up with a high exposure to media (sometimes dubbed as the ‘MTV Generation’), convenience (especially when it comes to food), on demand services, and heavy use of technology. Simply put, they will expect more of everything, and they will not be willing to wait.

What could this mean for the industry? At a minimum, I suspect that Generation Y will expect insurers to have a coherent customer engagement model (that incorporates a great user experience with accessibility from anywhere, and a social dimension), propositions that target them specifically (through unique insight, mass customisation for delivery, and the ability to source their information directly so that they don’t have to find it), and service excellence (i.e. immediate resolution with the insurer doing most of the work). Many of the technologies described at the start of this blog will be at the heart of turning this expectation into a reality.

So, when you come back to work next week, why not start by asking yourself the question “What am I going to do to prepare my organisation now to take on the opportunities presented by Generation Y in readiness for 2022?”

Oh, and a word of caution, it doesn’t stop at Generation Y. Some commentators are also now talking about Generation Z. These are the babies, toddlers and young children running around our feet who know of no other world than one with high speed broadband, touch devices, and instant connectivity. If you would like to understand what their expectations will be, then it’s probably a bit too early to guess. However, this popular YouTube clip may give you some insight. So, are your applications up to it or will you be left holding the ‘magazine’?

Author: Jamie Macgregor, Senior Analyst, Celent

The latest Exposure Draft (ED) “Superannuation Payments and Data Regulations” legislation from SuperStream (part of the Stronger Super government initiative to reform the Australian superannuation industry) focuses on the data standards for superannuation payments, placing enforceable requirements on super entities, employers and intermediaries processing data on behalf of these entities.

The SuperStream legislation is intended to improve the administrative efficiency and management of super accounts and this tranche “enables superannuation data and payment regulations to deal with payments and information related to superannuation transactions and reports”. Additionally it gives the Commissioner of Taxation the power “to issue mandatory superannuation data and payment standards for superannuation entities and employers”.

These measures represent great progress on messaging format standards – with the format being XBRL – although the ED is still relatively high level and we await regulations to provide the detail required to lock down systems and procedural changes.

The ED is somewhat silent on the delivery mechanism for the messages, however, there is some suggestion that a standard will be developed and implemented. A centralised hub delivered by government has been ruled out, opening up delivery mechanisms to alternatives. Messaging hubs or point-to-point delivery using an end point look up service can provide delivery mechanisms for SuperStream, allowing senders to access destinations and bank account details directly. A lookup service would need to be supported by data from the ATO which is being discussed but agreement has not been finalised to date. In the absence of such a look up service, affiliated funds will be forced to form alliances to deliver messages and reduce the costs associated with commercial clearing hubs, but this would only cover funds that exchange high volumes of data.

Another aspect of SuperStream that may cause potential early problems is how to handle the sheer size and volume of the XBRL messages. XBRL messages are naturally verbose and could lead to a ten times increase in aggregated contribution files from Super entities and intermediaries. Additionally, analysis of contribution data flows on Bravura Solutions systems clearly shows cyclical data spikes during the month where some dates are favoured over others for contribution payments. More evenly spreading these contributions over the month would reduce the impact on infrastructure and the potential cost of upgrades.

A final and, in my opinion, the most significant issue to consider for providers and administrators is how their systems will need to be configured or updated to support the messaging lifecycle. They will need to adjust their systems to cater for not only the acceptance and production of the XBRL messages, but how they are routed and lifecycles tracked.

The standards stipulate that a conversation needs to occur between participating parties. It’s not simply a case of listening and responding, rather each message has a number of steps that need to be orchestrated. SLAs, for example, relating to the message delivery are absent from the public documents currently available. An obvious question when thinking about implementing message lifecycle management is how long to wait until it is assumed that the message was not received and hence it needs to be resent. As an example, messaging networks we deal with in the UK have such SLAs in place. There is clearly a range of issues that need to be worked through before SuperStream changes can be implemented at these sites.

With little over a year until implementation of the legislation for large businesses, planning needs to start now in order to effectively to handle the reforms. Superannuation providers will need to understand how messages will be delivered in order to develop the appropriate infrastructure to receive the messages, deal appropriately with them internally and provide the information around lifecycle tracking and auditing.

How are you planning for SuperStream?

Authors: Darren Stevens, Head of Product – Global Wealth Management, Bravura Solutions &

Mark Thomas, Product Manager – eBusiness, Bravura Solutions