Sanlam and FNZ complete major migration in South Africa

• Sanlam Collective Investments (SCI) and FNZ have successfully completed a major migration to FNZ’s global wealth management platform.

• The successful migration, which included approximately 66,000 investors, 498 Linked Investment Service Providers (LISP) and 118 new funds, is part of SCI’s ongoing programme of digital transformation and is one of the largest migrations of its kind in South Africa.

• Sanlam first partnered with FNZ in 2015 to enhance its technological capabilities and greater support its customers’ needs.

• The ongoing partnership with Sanlam reflects FNZ’s significant momentum and commitment to growth in the African market.

Johannesburg, 13 June 2024: Sanlam Collective Investments (SCI), one of South Africa’s largest investment management companies, and FNZ, a leading global wealth management platform, have announced the successful completion of a major digital migration. Approximately 66,000 investors, 118 funds and 498 Linked Investment Service Providers (LISPs) have migrated onto FNZ’s market-leading end-to-end wealth management platform.

This marks one of the largest migrations of its kind in South Africa, representing a significant milestone in the Sanlam Group’s ongoing digital transformation program in partnership with FNZ, and is a major step forward in its Transfer Agency (TA) offering. It follows Sanlam Collective Investments’ acquisition of ABSA Investments in March 2024.

Through this migration, SCI has now streamlined its operations, consolidating the investment management businesses of Sanlam Collective Investments and Absa Investments onto a single technology platform. This latest milestone involved transferring multiple legacy systems to FNZ, vastly improving adviser efficiency and reducing operational risk.

Enhanced Services and Benefits

The new Transfer Agency (TA) service provided through FNZ’s global wealth management platform offers numerous benefits, including a significant reduction in onboarding times for funds, LISP, and non-LISP structures.

The enhanced automation allows for a 99.37% improvement in fund onboarding time and a 96.92% improvement¹ in investor onboarding processes. This frees up critical time for advisors to add value by doing what they do best – providing personalized advice and focusing on the end-investor experience.

Additionally, the platform has introduced a new Corporate Cash Product for SCI, facilitating large transactions seamlessly, and is now able to provide enhanced data quality through a new Data Quality Health Engine.

Sylvester Kgatla, CEO at Sanlam Collective Investments, said: “The expansion of the SCI business cements our purpose of being a leading investment business and ensuring that we deliver superb returns to all our customers. The migration was a monumental task which required meticulous execution. The completion of this migration is testament to our ongoing commitment to enhancing our service offering, leveraging digital transformation."

Ray Moodley, Managing Director of Africa at FNZ, commented: "We are proud to have achieved this milestone with SCI as we continue to support our partners’ long-term growth and set new standards for the wealth industry.”

The partnership serves as further evidence of FNZ's strong ongoing commitment to the African market, which is a key growth region as demand for its market-leading end-to-end wealth management platform increases. In Africa, FNZ works with 20+ major African financial institutions across six different African countries and employs around 650 people.

Globally, FNZ now parters with over 650 large financial institutions and over 12,000 wealth management firms in 30+ countries. They administer funds for over 24 million end investors and has over R27 trillion in assets under administration.

Sanlam and FNZ have enjoyed a successful partnership since 2015, enhancing technological capabilities and flexibility to meet customer needs.