NAB Signs with ASX's mFund Service

National Australia Bank’s NAB Asset Management and NAB Asset Servicing will join the ASX mFund Settlement Service.

The agreement between NAB and ASX sees NAB become the first major bank to commit to the mFund service, and will launch by the end of the year on mFund. 

NAB will support mFund through nabtrade, NAB Asset Management and NAB Asset Servicing and will provide specialist investment solutions and registry services and, via nabtrade, deliver a key access point for investors.

“We would class this as a key milestone,” says Marcus Christoe , senior manager, investment products and capital markets, ASX. “This is unique in that this is an enterprise-wide agreement with NAB. They’re coming on and increasing the distribution footprint by bringing nabtrade on board, which doubles our access to the retail space. They will be offering some of the funds that NAB Asset Management distribute, which means we widen the types of products and the range of products available on mFund.”

mFund was developed for investors, brokers and fund managers to improve timeliness and efficiency in investing in managed funds. The service replaces manual processing and uses the CHESS system used for settling ASX share transactions. It is an electronic processing service that allows investors to use an ASX broker to apply and redeem units in unlisted managed funds, ASX says.

mFund currently has 35 investment managers and 125 funds on its platform, and ASX expects that number will increase once the agreement with NAB is implemented. There will be further benefits in that NAB Asset Servicing customers will also be exposed to mFunds as well.
“One of the unique aspects of the mFund service is that custodians and third party unit registries are coming on as settlement participants,” Christoe says. 

The agreement with NAB also opens mFund up to further exposure to the self-managed superannuation sector, adds Ian Irvine, manager, managed investment services, ASX. 

“This opens us to the world of SMSF, and this sends the message to individual investors that we want individual investors to use this service,” Irvine says.

NAB also notes that the agreement with ASX brings a new access point for investors.

“Self-directed investors are looking for simple ways to diversify their portfolio,” says Nathan Walsh, NAB general manager of self directed wealth in a statement. “By joining the ASX mFund settlement service, nabtrade is expanding its smarter digital investing capability, giving customers better value and greater access to insights, and a range of investment solutions. This follows the introduction of International Trading and IPOs earlier this year which have received strong interest from self-directed investors and SMSFs”. 

Last week, ASX announced that Macquarie Online Trading has signed up to ASX’s mFund Settlement Service, while Bennelong Funds Management added four new funds to the mFund settlement services and UBS Funds Management have also added funds to mFunds, bringing the total number of funds settling on the mFund Settlement Service to 125.