IMPORTANT UPDATE ON TRANSFERS – 23 March 2022

Dear Client

Since we last wrote in December, we have continued to progress our transfer related improvements.  For example, we have included the ceding party name in the transaction detail, addressing your feedback about the difficulties of keeping track when multiple transfers are underway.

Also, you asked for more information about the different stages of the transfer process, in a diagram format and we have included those with this update. Please do continue to share feedback, so we can ensure we prioritise the things you will find most useful. 

Previously we spoke about the challenges associated with chasing transfers.  We have reduced ad-hoc chasing, with no adverse impact on transfer timescales in any way. While we accept that not everyone is in favour of our current approach to transfer related Freshdesk tickets, we believe it is the best use of resource and we thank you for your support with this.  It has meant that we can focus on the right things and consequently, we have been able to make a substantial reduction in the backlog, reducing the volume of outstanding tickets by more than 50%, helping to recover our overall service position.

There will still be transfer related tickets we do need to deal with, and as we continue to train our new starters, please bear with us.  Anything you can do at the outset, such as flagging in the Freshdesk ticket that it is an exceptional case that requires manual intervention, would be much appreciated.   On that note, it would be very helpful if you could indicate in the subject line, if your chaser relates to the residual cash in respect of an in-specie transfer.  This level of detail is not always available to the Customer Service team, so making this clear at the outset, may avoid the team pointing you to the Transfer MI for updates initially (given that the MI is likely to show these cases as complete and therefore, referring to it will be of little help). 

In terms of our automated transfer approach, we would like to provide you with some detail to address some of the questions we are frequently asked.  We chase every ceding party in a 10-day cycle and as soon as the first line of stock is received, we include fund managers in that chasing process too. The Transfer MI will indicate a next chaser due date, which is automatically populated based on the last activity date. However, this does not mean that the case will be chased on that exact date. For example, the MI report may indicate that a chaser is due on the fourth of the month (because this date has been driven by the last activity date, plus two weeks), but the automated electronic chaser of that party, may take place at a later point within the ten-day cycle.   There isn’t a simple way we can align the Transfer MI, because we use a combination of electronic and manual chasing, so we would be very grateful if you could bear this in mind, when getting it touch about chasers you think may be overdue.  Hopefully the example on the next page will help to illustrate this; 

• The Transfer MI indicates that a chaser is due on the 04/04/2022, because that date has been driven by the last chasing activity, plus two weeks

We have recently updated the share class conversion process within the ‘How To’ guide on the Knowledge Base, making it clearer that during the share class conversion process, the status of the account will be set to “XX1” (Trading Suspended).  That you must not remove this status, until after the conversion process is complete and that it is your responsibility, to make sure this is done, so that normal trading is resumed. 

Finally, here’s a quick reminder of some of the other ways you can help, summarised from our previous updates:

Should you require any further information, or have any specific queries, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Service Team, via Freshdesk.

Your faithfully

Douglas Boyce

Managing Director