Today Nasdaq (Nasdaq:NDAQ) Broker Services announced the launch of Nasdaq Nordic Fund Market in Finland and Norway. The market service, available in Sweden since 2010, aims to increase the efficiency for fund distributors and fund companies by enabling electronic straight through processing of orders and settlement.
We have seen an increasing demand in Finland and Norway, and we are happy to be able to expand our Nordic Fund Market offering into these countries,” said Erika Danielsson, Head of Nasdaq Nordic Fund Market. “By leveraging Nasdaq’s knowledge and leading technology and applying it within the mutual fund space, Nordic Fund Market enables fund distributors and companies to be on the fintech frontline, with lower transaction costs and reduced operational risk as results.
Nordic Fund Market gives fund distributors access to a broad choice of mutual funds through one single interface. As of now, the service covers the Swedish, Finnish and Norwegian market for distributors and local and international fund companies are welcome to register their funds as long their products are registered for sale in the respective countries. There are presently 200 connected fund companies with more than 5,000 mutual funds available on the Nasdaq platform.
An increasing number of countries see a development towards fund markets where end investors are looking to invest in low-risk and non-complex products such as UCITS funds and AIF funds,” added Mattias Hammarqvist, CEO of Nasdaq Broker Services. “Fund distributors need to be able to offer a wide and independent range of mutual funds, not only their own products, and through Nordic Fund Market, Nasdaq is able to help answer to that demand.
The announcement is the latest step in Nasdaq’s ambition to create a modern, effective and integrated fund market in the Nordic region, based on new and innovative market technology. Last September, Nasdaq announced a joint project together with Nordic financial services group SEB, to test a developed for mutual fund trading platform based on blockchain technology.