OPAL enables a high-profile investment company to launch a new financial product every six weeks

Case Study: OPAL enables a high-profile investment company to launch a new financial product every six weeks

A world-leading investment company wanted to launch structured retail investment products throughout the year, and also to create bespoke product solutions. Each investment opportunity was carefully designed to satisfy a number of different client risk requirements, and to offer a variety of terms and payoff options. As such, products ranged from deposit-based structured products with capital security through to potentially higher return and higher risk investment products.

The company contacted OPAL for help, as it knew that the success of its new retail products would depend upon the ability to launch new products very quickly, and to offer a range of products that would be suitable for a wide spectrum of investor needs.

OPAL HAS THE KNOW HOW

OPAL provided this investment company with a robust technology and administration platform that allows it to launch new products very quickly, leaving OPAL to take responsibility for managing client contact and product administration. This approach was designed to help the company increase its business volumes even further by bringing these new products to financial advisors who had not traditionally sold structured products.

In order for its new range of investment options to succeed, however, the company needed the ability to launch new products within 20-30 days of producing a product outline. As such, OPAL prepares a full specification of the business procedures, client communications and product rules for each new product, and provided the company with these details within 24 hours of receiving each product outline. As soon as this specification was agreed, OPAL could then build and test the systems, ready for launch.

From the moment that a product is launched, clients and IFAs regularly communicate their servicing requests to OPAL. All of these communications – including changes to client details, redemption requests, notification of death, and valuations – are processed and administered exclusively by OPAL. In addition, on an annual basis, OPAL sends each client a statement which details any investments held, along with a valuation at the statement date.

A SUCCESS ALL AROUND

With OPAL’s help, this high-profile investment company has launched many various successful products, and OPAL's technology platform has handled thousands of plans effectively and efficiently.

To support such a complex product range and high volume of transactions, OPAL now processes 100 per cent of product applications through its core workflow systems. This paper-free processing enables faster and more effective access to client data. At the same time, OPAL's sophisticated workflow system securely captures all client communication and records for ongoing processing and viewing purposes.

Following this successful project, this investment company has now become one of the fastest-growing structured product providers in the UK, and has won numerous awards for its products and service. As such, OPAL has played a key role in helping its client to achieve its market ambitions in the UK.