The Investment Management Straight-through-processing Development Group (IMSDG) was established in 2004 to provide a forum through which organisations in the pension and investment industry could work together to promote the wider use of STP.

IMSDG has members from a range of organisations, including investment managers, life companies, SIPP providers, pension schemes, benefit consultants, third party administrators, management and IT consultants. General meetings are held twice a year and regular newsletters are issued to members to keep them up to date with STP developments in the industry.

The work of IMSDG is built around collaboration. All of the projects that are undertaken focus on specific data exchanges and how these can be modified to work to agreed and common standards. Once these standards are established, organisations can invest in an appropriate technology solution to implement STP to support these exchanges, with confidence that they will be able to exchange information with a number of counterparties all using the same standard. IMSDG believes that it is essential that any standards that are developed are "open" standards available to all and will look to identify suitable industry bodies to take on the ownership and maintenance of these.

The best example of how IMSDG can make a difference can be found in corporate pensions where a number of IMSDG member companies collaborated to develop a standard for the exchange of data related to investment orders. This standard is known as ViaNova and it is established as market best practice; details about ViaNova and what it covers can be found here.

IMSDG is always keen to explore other data exchanges where a similar collaborative approach mights be used to develop new standards.

Membership of IMSDG is open to all organisations with an interest in improving operational effectiveness by making better use of STP. If you would like further information on the benefits of becoming a member please contact us.