Adviser platform Transact has appointed Damien Francis as its chief technology officer as it looks to move away from paper forms.
Francis was most recently at Investec as head of information technology services and before that held the role of global head of client technology at Janus Henderson.
Jonathan Gunby, Transact chief executive, said: ‘‘We are delighted to be joined by Damien Francis who has a total of 20 years’ experience of technology in the finance and wealth sector.”
Francis will be based in London and will ensure that Transact’s IT teams in London, Norwich and Melbourne are coordinated and work closely together to “keep Transact at the forefront of the platform sector”.
Over the past two years Transact has been working to develop its capability across its IT profile.
According to Transact, the vast majority of instructions can be completed online, with it working to complete its IT developments so that the need for paper forms will be minimal.
It has also migrated its operations to new data centres and moved some elements to the cloud.
Last week, Transact announced it would lower its costs further for smaller portfolio holders by cutting its buy commission exemption threshold from £200,000 to £100,000 later this year.
In an email to advisers (January 20), Transact said the changes will come into effect from March 1.
The platform said the change means "better value for smaller portfolios" and that more clients will pay no buy commission on purchases.
Earlier last week, Transact released its quarterly trading update for the final three months of 2022.
Inflows were down by about 25 per cent, and outflows had risen by 11 per cent, from £688mn at the end of 2021 to £769mn at the end of 2022.
But customer numbers have continued to grow.
At the end of 2021, Transact had 213,178 customers, but by the end of 2022 this had risen to 226,996 - with the bulk of the gains made early in the year.
amy.austin@ft.com
