Unlisted products increasingly entering market

The number of unlisted financial products that are registering in the Australian market and the number of participants in the APIR coding regime has increased year-on-year, according to APIR chief executive, Chris Donohoe.

In the 27 years of its operations, APIR has identified over 30,000 individual financial products through its coding and management of reference data, providing regular reports and releasing industry volume numbers.

In the latest report, APIR revealed that total product registrations for the 2020/21 financial year were up by 25.6% from the previous year. This trend was also seen in the September 2021 quarter, with total product registrations up more than 100% from the same period in 2020.

The number of participants in APIR’s coding regime or product issuers also increased by 10% over the 2020/21 financial year.

Donohoe said the types of products being registered were also dependent on a number of factors, including overarching economic sentiment and product manufacturing costs.

“It is pleasing that a significant component of the growth is coming from traditional managed investment products. Product registration levels are a good barometer of industry sentiment, so product issuers are clearly feeling a degree of optimism and new participants are continually entering the market.

“There’s a number of reasons for the results including the positive impact from the new Design and Distribution Obligations that came into effect on 5 October 2021 and the scalable nature of managed investments products from a manufacturing perspective,” he said.

Donohoe also said APIR expects to see continued growth across the majority of product types into 2022, with an ongoing rationalisation of superannuation products.

“We anticipate continued growth in the managed accounts area of the business. It remains a small part of the collective investment scheme landscape, but the growth rate is relatively strong. We also expect some of our existing clients to take advantage of the new life insurance identification capabilities.

“Conversely, we expect to see archiving of superannuation investment options as trustees continue to rationalise legacy products and simplify their offering to members,” he said.