MMI MANAGED ACCOUNT SOLUTIONS STANDARDS VERSION 1.O APPROVED BY BOARD OF GOVERNORS
--- BOARD MEMBERS ADVOCATE FOR IMPLEMENTATION ---
Washington, D.C., April 7, 2009, The MMI Board of Governors voted to approve the release and publication of the Account Origination and Maintenance Standards release version 1.0 that were submitted by the Managed Account Solutions Standards Committee (MASS) Account Origination and Maintenance Subcommittee. The MMI Board of Governors also reaffirmed their commitment to continue to support implementation within their respective firms. The MASS Committee is working to provide industry definitions and a consistent electronic format that will enable industry participant firms to communicate with each other efficiently and effectively. The schema and supporting documentation is available for review or download on the MASS website (http://mass-committee.org/).
Adoption of communication standards allows industry participants to build applications that are efficient and scalable that can be supported with consistent staff levels despite volume fluctuation, while reducing the risk of processing errors and eliminates expensive paper based processing.
“The MMI Board has made this a priority over the past several years because of the gains that the industry can achieve through a widely adopted communication standard. The MASS committee has done an outstanding job in getting the standards into production. The board endorses the work that the MASS committee is doing as the standards can provide efficiencies that result in better client service and savings,” said Henry Kaplan, managing director, Morgan Stanley and MMI Board of Governor.
The components of the release 1.0 standard include the account origination and maintenance message schema. Also posted on the website are a spreadsheet which includes reference documentation and a prototype schema of routing information for communication of MASS messages.
The MASS committee consists of five working groups governed by a steering committee which is comprised of the co-chairs of each of the sub-committees. The five subcommittees are addressing: Account Origination and Maintenance, Billing, Reconciliation, Trading, Models Maintenance. A marketing and communications subcommittee communicates the MASS committee mission and its deliverables.
"The approval by the MMI Board is a milestone for the managed solutions industry. Through an open process, leading investment managers, sponsors and solution providers came together to fulfill the vision of open communication standards with the purpose of bringing greater efficiency to the industry," said Gib Veconi, CEO of Peridrome Corporation.”
Future versions of the standards under committee review will include additional enhancements and billing schema and will be available for industry comment soon.
About MMI
Since 1997 MMI has been the leading voice for the global financial services organizations that provide advice and professionally-managed solutions to individual and institutional investors. Through industry advocacy, educational initiatives, regulatory affairs, data reporting and professional networking, MMI supports and advances the growth of managed investments. MMI members’ advice-driven investment solutions serve an evolving worldwide financial landscape and their organizations are committed to the highest standards of fiduciary responsibility and ethical conduct.For more information, visit www.mminst.org.