Ceridian, a leader in human resource outsourcing management solutions that help maximize the value of people, announced today that its Retirement Plan Services unit will begin offering its retirement plan administration customers enhanced mutual fund trade automation and processing services.
Ceridian is teaming up with Wayne, PA-based SunGard (NYSE:SDS) to integrate the SunGard Transaction Network (STN) into its menu of retirement plan administration offerings. STN is an electronic network for automating financial transactions that links plan participants to more than 550 institutional investors and over 300 mutual fund companies.
Integrated with Ceridian's existing recordkeeping system, STN will provide seamless routing and execution for trading retirement plan mutual fund assets, along with access to trust, custody and settlement services. STN will also provide a single, automated source for participants using self-directed account (SDA) services. Linking the trading, settlement, reconciliation and income processing functions through STN will help Ceridian's customers achieve the benefits of operating in a straight-through processing (STP) environment. These benefits include greater operational efficiencies and reduced risk from minimizing the manual effort involved in mutual fund trading for participants.
"We selected SunGard's STN to help provide cost-effective, comprehensive functionality for mutual fund trading and processing," says Jim Corcoran, president of Ceridian Benefits Solutions. "We are continually looking to help our customers more efficiently deliver benefits to their employees. The automation of STN, combined with its ease of use, will help our plan sponsor clients provide a better retirement plan offering to their employees."
Todd Moyer, senior vice president of SunGard's STN, said, "Using STN, Ceridian can now access the tools and services needed to streamline its plan administration and recordkeeping process through a single connection. This comprehensive solution will help Ceridian to increase operational efficiencies and support larger trading volumes, while helping to reduce the cost and risk associated with manual order processing and plan reconciliation."
STN will also help Ceridian's clients to efficiently and cost-effectively trade National Securities Clearing Corporation (NSCC) funds and non-NSCC funds and maintain and support individual connections.
Ceridian will begin offering STN to its customers in the third quarter of 2005.