Daily Archives: July 8, 2016

Australia’s first of its type managed portfolio service for bonds has now exceeded  $100 million in investments, with a range of individual, institutional and not-for-profits (NFPs) embracing the service for its high level of control, transparency and performance.

FIIG Securities launched the Managed Income Portfolio Service (MIPS) in mid 2015 as a way for investors to retain direct ownership of their bond portfolio and either receive fixed income or reinvest it while delegating the portfolio’s day-to-day management.

FIIG developed four different Investment Programs for MIPS, from which investors can select depending on their requirements for return and tolerance for risk, with the minimum investment starting at $250,000. Customised programs are available for larger investors ($5 million+). 

Performance has been a key driver of demand for MIPS with average performance, net of fees, for each of each program for the three months to end of May 2016, outlined below. 

Since launching, more than over 50 investors with an average investment of around $1.75 million have utilised MIPS with total investments passing $100 million last week, with the most popular being the ‘Income Plus’ program.

FIIG Head of Institutional Markets John Cummins said the service provided clients with direct access to a well-diversified portfolio of direct bonds combined with professional management and oversight.

“Direct ownership of bonds has many advantages over buying them indirectly through a bond fund,” he said. “MIPS gives you all the benefits of beneficial ownership while delegating the day-to-day running of your portfolio to our fixed income experts.”

“Since launching we have experienced a steady inflow of investments with many investors increasing their programs once they fully understand the benefits,” he said. The success of the service over the last 12 months has gives us confidence there is a strong market for the MIPS and we will continue to grow well into the future.”

Under the MIPS offering investors simply set a mandate and FIIG’s portfolio management team manages the portfolio for them.

Investors through MIPS receive full professional investment management, retain beneficial ownership of their bonds, can choose to receive  or reinvest income,  and enjoy full transparency, with online access to details of their portfolio such as portfolio performance, valuations and transactions. (cont’d)        

FIIG Securities Limited, which is licensed by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC), is Australia’s largest specialist fixed-income dealer. FIIG now facilitates over $1 billion of corporate Bond transactions per month for individuals and corporate investors.

FIIG has more than $11 billion in term deposits and corporate bonds under advice in its short-term money market, bonds and custody business.  The company has offices in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. For more information about FIIG Securities please visit www.fiig.com.au

ENDS: Media enquiries to Ben Ready on 0415 743 838.

Collecting money with Xero is now faster and easier than ever with a new partnership between two of Australia’s most innovative software companies. Leading payments technology innovators IntegraPay has teamed up with cloud-based collections automation business ezyCollect to accelerate accounts receivables recovery for small businesses using the Xero accounting platform. Under the new partnership, businesses that have signed up for ezyCollect’s automated invoice reminder add-on can integrate with the IntegraPay add-on to make it easier for their customers to make payments using a range of different options including credit card, BPAY and bank debit. The combination of regular reminders and easy payment options offered by the new solution can have a dramatic impact on accounts receivable with some clients reducing overdue debt by more than 50% and reducing bad debts by more than 90%. IntegraPay Chief Executive Officer Chris Urry said the partnership brought together two solutions with a shared goal of helping clients to collect payments faster and more efficiently. “Collecting outstanding invoices is one of the biggest challenges for small and medium sized business,” he said. “By combining regular, automated reminders using ezyCollect and giving clients a range of payment options using IntegraPay, debtor days are smashed and cash flow become much easier for businesses.” “Individually, we have both been able to demonstrate the value of our systems… combining them together on the Xero platform will give businesses a great opportunity to get ahead of their receivables and improve their bottom line.” According to a study from Dun & Bradstreet, more than 90% of business fail due to poor cash flow. The leading cause is bad receivables management. ezyCollects software solves this problem by intelligently automating unproductive, manual and repetitive tasks done by accounting departments. This allows businesses to focus on the most important part of their business – growing sales and building customer relationships. The results speak for themselves, with most customers seeing a 50% reduction in overdue debts in under three months. ezyCollect CEO Arjun Singh said the partnership with IntegraPay brings together two unique platforms. “We both understand the importance of cashflow to business success and have developed solutions that unblock the payment pipeline at key points,” he said. “The combination of ezyCollect and IntegraPay has the potential to slash your overdue debtors in weeks.” The IntegraPay Xero add-on brings together a number of important features, including utilising all the most popular payment methods, and for the first time allows you to include BPAY as a payment option. IntegraPay allows customers to pay Xero one-off invoices or recurring payments using a range of other options including credit card, bank transfer or regular direct debit, straight from the invoice. Customers click on the Pay Now button on their invoice to be directed to a menu of payment options. From there they simply select the solution that works for them and make the payment. IntergaPay’s Xero payment solution automatically reconciles payments from the invoice in Xero to reduce manual data entry and administrative costs while removing the risk of reconciling a payment with the wrong invoice.