The Irish Stock Exchange (ISE) launched a new website last year www.isefundhub.com for funds listed on the ISE to display important fund information such as key fund documents, investment manager profiles, NAV histories and analytics as well as peer comparisons among funds. There are currently over 2,000 funds listed on the ISE. Funds list on the exchange for a variety of reasons but predominantly to attract investment from institutional investors who may be otherwise restricted. A listing also provides investors with an additional layer of regulatory oversight as well as tax benefits in certain markets and increased transparency and visibility.
The site has been very successful, attracting 50 managers since launch and as a result the ISE has decided to open up the site to all Irish domiciled funds.
www.isefundhub.com allows managers to display profiles of themselves and compare their funds to other similar funds. So far a number of high profile managers have opted to display their fund data on the site including; Muzinich, Neuberger Berman, Lord Abbett and Dragon Capital.
According to Alex McKenna Director of Fund Services at Muzinich: “We see this as a welcome innovation by the Irish Stock Exchange and we were delighted to be one of the early fund managers to display our fund information on www.isefundhub.com. We believe that it will be beneficial for the Irish funds industry to have a central place where investors can view data on Irish funds”.
According to McKenna: “the site is low cost and low maintenance” and this has proved to be a key attraction in getting managers to opt to display their data on www.isefundhub.com. There are a lot of platforms in the market where funds can display their data but a common complaint from managers has been that they are very onerous for the manager to populate and maintain. The ISE’s site is seen as simple and easy to navigate for investors who are looking for a high level overview of funds either listed on the ISE or domiciled in Ireland.
Given the size of the fund industry in Ireland, this is a welcome development as Ireland has experienced strong growth in the funds industry in the last few years and now has over 6,000 funds (including sub-funds) domiciled in Ireland. Surprisingly there was not previously a centralised location to view data on Irish domiciled funds and it looks as if the ISE is filling a gap to provide a necessary addition to the funds infrastructure in Ireland.
Rose Ward, Vice President International Primary Markets at the ISE, says: “We are really pleased with the take up from some of the well-known fund managers who choose to list their funds on the Irish Stock Exchange as it gives them an opportunity to provide increased visibility to their investors.”
The site is run in partnership with FundConnect who are a fund data infrastructure provider based in Copenhagen and is similar to www.Nordicfunddata.com which is operated by FundConnect specifically for funds distributing in the Nordic region.
The site is geared for professional investors and as such is a private site and access is provided upon vetting by FundConnect and the ISE to professional investors only.
For managers who wish to display their information on www.isefundhub.com they can register directly on the website or alternatively contact the Irish Stock Exchange directly at [email protected].
Useful links – ISE, Irish Stock Exchange, ISEFundHub
