Key legal doc set to finalise re-reg project

A key legal agreement set to be signed between platform players has been hailed by Tisa as the “final piece” of the re-registration jigsaw.

If platform players sign up to a draft legal indemnity agreement prepared by law firm Pinsent Masons on 30 June the Tisa re-registration project will effectively come to an end, said Tisa director of policy Malcolm Small.

"This is the final piece of the jigsaw in terms of the re-reg project as run by Tisa," he said.

Small added whilst the draft agreement may not be the finished article, it will be "relied upon for the purposes of re-registration going forward" should parties put their signatures to it later this month.

Although a legal agreement exists between fund managers and platforms for the transfer of assets, no such agreement currently exists between different platform operators.

Earlier this month, Ascentric and FundsNetwork completed the first in specie platform re-registration under the Tisa initiative using the Altus Transfer Gateway.

Small said the industry is now "within an ace" of delivering the re-registration project.

"We have agreed the messaging system, we have agreed the standardised ISO 20022 and we have drawn up and agreed the service level agreements so we have put the architecture in place," he said.

"It is now down to the market participants working with the suppliers to automate and finally deliver on re-registration."

However, Small went on to reiterate his warning that the FSA's proposal to ban cash rebates could scupper the re-registration project.

Platforms have until the RDR deadline of the end of 2012 to have a full re-registration system in place.