Pan-European exchange group Euronext has launched Euronext Fund Service Paris, which draws on its experience with Euronext Fund Service in Amsterdam.
Brieuc Louchard (pictured), business development manager, ETFs and funds at Euronext, says the aim of this project is to encourage asset management companies to list their open-ended funds – UCITS, AIF or passported in France – drawn from all strategies, on the exchange.
“The way we designed this service is that it is open to anyone from retail investors to institutional investors and corporates,” Louchard says.
“It is a new market segment from scratch, designed to develop the funds’ activity on the exchange without any limitations.”
Louchard says the aim is to offer the best service the exchange can to the buy side, the asset managers.
The new service launched on 15 May with AXA IM, Ecofi Investissements, La Française Investment Solutopns, Natixs AM and OFI AM Funds.
Clients will be able to place orders for a range of international open-end funds through the broker of the service, as they already do for other exchange tradable products.
Euronext Fund Service should help fintech companies, in particular robo-advisers seeking automated infrastructure solutions.
Funds admitted to trading on Euronext Fund Service Paris will benefit from enhanced visibility through data flows generated by Euronext. A partnership with Morningstar will also allow free access to fund data, information, selection and comparison on the Euronext website.
Orders placed through Euronext Fund Service Paris will be at net asset value in euros, transferred to the fund agent under the Euronext model. Fund agents registered with Euronext at this stage are BNP Paribas Securities Services, CACEIS, CM-CIC Market Solutions and Société Générale Securities Services.
Louchard says: “We are offering a straight-through processing service with no manual intervention.”
The new service comes after the success of the existing Euronext Amsterdam product which focuses on the Dutch fund market and has grown since 2007 to have 160 funds listed, and an average daily volume of EUR45 million over the last three years.
“This offer will take time to meet maturity as the brokers will need to apprehend the funds’ business specificities and the end-investors this new channel of investments” Louchard says. “The fund management companies are considered as a partner on this project that could lead to a successful new funds market in the future.”
“We also want to be very close to our members, our brokers, to accompany and to support them in its development. It is an interesting new service for the brokers because they can offer new products to their clients and we have good feedback from them,” Louchard says.
