A group of European financial firms has published an open data standard for investment funds that aims to facilitate industry growth by improving transparency and reducing data transmission errors.

The “openfunds” standard, released today, aims to represent a common industry standard for the interchange and dissemination of fund data between firms. The standard was developed by a non-profit consortium of 24 financial institutions led by a trio of Swiss firms: UBS AG, Credit Suisse AG and Julius Baer Group Ltd.

According to a white paper from the group, investment fund data is often sent from fund manufacturers to dealers in old-fashioned spreadsheets, which can lead to duplication and errors. The openfunds project aims to improve efficiency by eliminating potential sources of error and ambiguity during fund-data interchange. Its strategy is to develop a data standard that allows for the autonomous collection, processing and exchange of fund data between fund companies and distributors.

“This unprecedented collaboration has resulted in a standard that will foster significant growth in the fund industry” said Fabio Pérez Cina, manager in investment solutions and products at Credit Suisse. “Openfunds is an idea whose time has come, and we look forward to promoting it as the de facto global standard for fund data interchange.”

The standard is published under a Creative Commons Licence, which means that it can be used free of charge, provided that no changes are made, and that openfunds is cited as a source.

“The openfunds standard gives fund houses and distributors simple and standardized access to fund information,” said Sascha Lingling, executive director at Fondcenter AG, UBS Asset Management. “For banks, openfunds increases the quality of fund data while improving automation and accessibility. “Distribution partners and their clients ultimately benefit from increased transparency and reliability as they can much [more easily] evaluate and compare investment funds.”

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