Product registrations maintain strong growth

APIR Systems, which identifies, codes, and manages reference data for unlisted financial products, said there have been well above-average registrations of new financial products, particularly managed funds and managed accounts, in the year ending 30 June 2023.

According to Chris Donohoe, chief executive at APIR, while product registrations are slightly down on the previous year’s record number, they were still 34.2 per cent above the rolling four-year average.

Managed investment products (MIPs) remain the top choice of product with 70.4 per cent of total registrations in the 2022–23 financial year. Registrations of MIPs also finished 22.1 per cent above the rolling four-year average in FY23.

The big riser for the financial year, APIR said, was managed accounts (SMA model), which saw an increase of 174.4 per cent over the previous year.

APIR added that there were 45 new participant (i.e. product issuers such as responsible entities and trustees) registrations in FY23, driving a net increase of 7.1 per cent on the prior year.

“Managed investment products continued to be the industry’s product engine room, however, it is extremely pleasing to see the significant increase in managed account registrations in 2022–23, being 153.8 per cent above the four-year rolling average,” Mr Donohoe said.

“This further demonstrates the industry’s better understanding of how to leverage the benefits of the APIR coding regime.”

He added that product termination numbers for the financial year were mostly comprised of superannuation investment options, which is a consequence of the industry’s recent merger and acquisition activity.

Looking ahead to the 2023–24 financial year, Mr Donohoe said the industry “continues to evolve and has proven to be incredibly resilient and innovative in recent years”.

“We expect that the continued domestic and global challenges, including a rapidly changing interest rate environment and the recessionary threats, will drive further innovative responses and offer opportunities to product manufacturers,” he said.