Sophisticated Access launches online registry

Sophisticated Access (SA), a central source of investment information for sophisticated investors and wholesale investors in Australia, has launched Cygura, a secure, real-time registry, for investors and their accountants, financial advisers and product issuers to manage sophisticated investor certificates online.

“The distinction between a retail and sophisticated investor has become crucial to compliance in Australia’s financial services industry,” said Sophisticated Access’s founder and managing director Peta Tilse. “Yet until now we have been trapped in a legacy paper-based system with multiple certificates, missed deals from lapsed certificates and in some instances a lack of transparency for investors over their status as sophisticated.”

Tilse said that Cygura will replace and streamline that manual certification process with a central, electronic online system that is “transparent, compliant and up to date”.

Compliance issues
The launch comes amid increasing focus on the efficiency and integrity of Australia’s consumer financial services system by regulator ASIC and the Financial Services Inquiry (Murray Inquiry).

“Cygura puts investors in the box seat, giving them greater control over the certification process, including the ability to control and see who is relying on the certificate,” Tilse added. “This will help restore credibility to the certification process and address some of the compliance issues raised in the advisory market recently.”

Cygura, said Tilse, will also allow advisers and product providers to view the status of their clients in one central location, simplifying the marketing of new investment opportunities to sophisticated investors.

In developing Cygura, SA worked closely with ASIC to identify and address relevant regulatory matters. “The service complies with the Corporations Act requirements,” said Tilse, who added that amid the growth and increasing complexity of financial products and self-managed super funds (SMSFs) it has become critical to clarify who is retail and who is sophisticated.

Sophisticated investors receive priority access to institutional deals including pre-IPO offers, private placements, property syndicates and structured investment products, but they lose retail investor disclosure protections.

To become a sophisticated investor, the Corporations Act requires an investor’s accountant to sign a Qualified Accountants Certificate (Investor Certificate) verifying the investor has at least $2.5m of net assets, or has earned at $250,000 pa over the past two years.