Cashfac is delighted to announce that one of the UK’s largest wealth manager and specialist SIPP provider - trusted by thousands of investors with billions of pounds in pension and investment savings - has selected Cashfac to help drive their business transformation.

Meeting the challenges of scalable business transformation

The firm chose to expand its relationship with Cashfac to drive business transformation and innovation through a scalable Cashfac Virtual Accounts platform as part of their wider strategic objectives. Cashfac was selected to help orchestrate all aspects of cash movements and real-time operational general ledger accounting across products, IFAs and Fund Managers.

Faced with traditionally architected core systems and multiple bespoke applications, the wealth manager has met challenges with increasing and automating information exchange. Where possible, the firm wants progressively to decommission old systems and applications to simplify the operating rhythm across all product offerings and marketplace touchpoints.

A key part of this business transformation is moving away from the need to hold tens of thousands of real bank accounts and start benefitting from the efficiency and financial savings of self-service banking.

From 60,000+ to 8 Real Bank Accounts

In excess of 60,000 individual real client bank accounts were replaced by just 8 pooled bank accounts. The client accounts can now be opened and closed in real-time through automated customer journeys driven by APIs, saving on administration effort. Operations are transformed by moving to real-time transactions and aggregation. Banking terms have improved by reducing the banks’ workload and by pooling.

The solution allows the firm to fully segregate client funds to meet CASS7 / MIFIDII (Client Assets) and Trust Money protection regulations. The rich functionality of the platform also enables the firm to streamline the management of distributions and rebates across Fund Managers and automate fee management procedures for IFAs.

Double Entry Cashbook Control Mechanism

The solution supports the implementation of a double-entry cashbook control mechanism which replicates data on the general ledger of what happens in the real pooled bank account. In doing so, reconciliations are driven continuously; checking and accounting disciplines using primary controls rather than relying on traditional reconciliation through secondary controls – see Controlling the Client Money Event below. Unreconciled transactions are dealt with in real-time and credit limits are imposed across each virtual account to manage guaranteed settlement and automated top-ups from firm money.

Controlling the Client Money Event

Implementation of Managed and Hosted Solution

The firm’s decision to implement Cashfac’s hosted and managed service reduced reliance on key personnel cover and training through maintenance of key processes by Cashfac. It allows Cashfac to build, manage and deploy the platform more rapidly on a global network to the highest security standards and regulatory compliance.