If you’re an investment company that manages retail funds in the European Union (EU) or the United Kingdom (UK), the odds are that you’ve had a meeting or two around the European Commission’s PRIIPs Regulation. From January 1, 2023, all investment funds are required to provide Key Information Documents (KIDs) to their non-professional investors in the EU.
This has presented UCITS managers (Undertakings for Collective Investment in Transferable Securities) with numerous complexities to navigate and limited time to do so.
The Packaged Retail and Insurance-based Investment Products (PRIIPs) regulation, which is directly applicable in all EU member states, have required manufacturers to prepare PRIIPs KIDs to inform their retail and semi-professional investors before selling their products, since the beginning of 2018. However, for UCITS managers it was sufficient to prepare their established UCITS KIIDs (Key Investor Information Document) during the generous transition period.
In this article, we review how a robust Broadridge-integrated solution was scoped and implemented on the client’s website to display Performance Scenarios and Past Performance. The fully automated solution paved the way for better governance and complete creative control. It also proved to be the more cost-effective approach.
Situation
During the summer of 2022 a global asset manager with UCITS funds engaged with the HomeTree Digital strategy team to discuss the new regulatory requirements from the EU. The goal was to define a compliant solution that could be embedded into the individual UCITS fund pages without negatively impacting the user experience. Furthermore, the data displayed on the charts needed to be Share Class and Currency specific, identified by unique ISIN, and populated dynamically by user selection.
The Broadridge team offered two approaches to implementing this while providing the PRIIPs fund data. The first was utilizing Broadridge widgets to display the website charts or a direct API integration with Broadridge.
Solution
HomeTree Digital’s strategy team immediately reviewed the two approaches available and provide the client the recommendation. With the looming deadline, time was of the essence. The team’s findings reported that the widget included higher maintenance costs and was limited in functionality and flexibility. The limitations included branding and styling alignment, making the components fully interactive with the visitor, and would be prone to performance and downtime risks. These risks would be outside the client’s control.
As a result, the team’s recommended approach was to use the direct API integration. The integration allowed for a native front-end to be coded dynamic, interactive, and styled as desired. The historical data would be stored on a secure and reliable AWS database local to the web application, and only incur a one-off implementation fee.
The HomeTree Digital development team commenced work on building out the solution ahead of receiving the data. This put us in a better position when the data was received to meet the regulatory deadline. The team worked closely with the Broadridge development team to pave the way for the successful retrieval and testing of the data feed through the Broadridge API.
Results
As we reached the holiday period and the regulatory deadline drew closer, the HomeTree Digital Quality Assurance (QA) team validated that the website data matched the KIDs documents, as a last check. Once approved, the DevOps Engineering team liaised with the project manager to deploy the changes through the UAT environment, test, and then production for the go-live.
To automate the synchronization of the data from the API feed, the team scheduled it to retrieve the data the fifteenth business day (15BD) and if no data was retrieved for the month, again on the twentieth (20BD). The business users were also provided with a manual sync’ing button for flexibility and an email notification was setup, so they are adequately alerted.
Check out the solution for yourself here.
Have you struggled with the transition or are stuck with higher costs? Our team is standing by to help you built a branded, interactive, and scalable solution. Display your fund’s Performance Scenarios and Past Performance the way you want to, on your website. Start a conversation today and receive a free quote and implementation timeline.
About HomeTree Digital
HomeTree Digital is a full-service digital marketing agency for financial services. We specialize in branding & creative, videography, web & mobile development, integrations, automations, email marketing, social media marketing, paid advertising, SEO, and analytics. If you are facing challenges in any of these areas, please reach out to us for assistance.
HomeTree is defined as a wise resourceful home that provides knowledge, instills inspiration, encourages creativity and protects. While harmoniously connecting its residents through its branches and roots to the outer world. This accurately describes the approach we take when it comes to our clients. We believe in excellent customer service and prioritizing you. Our mission is to provide you with the know-how to succeed in this rapidly evolving digital world.
