IOOF has been helping Australians secure their financial future for more than 165 years, rightfully earning their place as one of Australia’s largest financial services companies.

A highly regulated industry, superannuation providers must comply with rigorous legislation – and having the right technology in place to support this is crucial. One key element of asset administration that supports the superannuation business is custodial services.

Seeing an opportunity to provide a better service to their clients whilst reducing operating risk, IOOF set about streamlining their system by bringing the custody service in-house, reducing costs while improving the timeliness of the service.

IOOF chose the programming language Clojure for the project – an elegant functional language that integrates easily with Java – with no impact on the rest of the technical architecture. Clojure’s high level of compatibility with Java fit well within their existing IT landscape – and was quick to build, with a lot less code

To assist, IOOF called ThoughtWorks, a trusted partner. The ongoing relationship between IOOF and ThoughtWorks led to highly engaged stakeholders – allowing the team to move quickly with the delivery effort. 

Co-locating also meant the teams could access feedback first hand – ensuring the system was custom made to the exact requirements, and most importantly, met the needs of the people using the system.

Incrementally over a period of six months, the custody function was moved from an external provider to the in-house team, leading to more effective and efficient business processes. Importantly, the service has reduced the risk profile related to the function and allows an increased service to the end customers.