Why choose MeManaged, MeDirect’s discretionary portfolio management service?

By Ingrid Micallef, Head – Products and Marketing at MeDirect
Article published on the Malta Independent on Sunday

If you are a resident of Malta and decide to search online for discretionary portfolio management services, you’ll find plenty of options, including ones that offer the service from “as low as €500,000.” With MeDirect you just need €100 so there’s one benefit, right from the get-go.

But what is discretionary portfolio management and why is MeDirect’s product MeManaged so accessible when other financial services companies set such high barriers to entry?

A discretionary portfolio management service allows investors to create an actively managed portfolio where day-to-day decisions are handed over to their portfolio manager. Once the investor has established clear financial goals and an investment strategy, the portfolio manager does all the work. As a result, the investor is free to go back to focusing on what matters most to them in their daily lives. It is the requirement of having a portfolio manager who acts on your behalf, based on a direct knowledge of your goals and risk appetite, that has made this service one which until now has only been accessible to high net worth individuals.

How has MeDirect overcome this challenge? MeDirect’s mission is to democratise finance and give customers the tools and information they need to manage their money with confidence and autonomy. As Malta’s first digital bank, we went about trying to find ways in which our discretionary portfolio management service could be digitalised. In this we have been successful and MeManaged is, in fact, a fully digital service. We have designed an intuitive online questionnaire which helps us identify your goals and risk appetite, enabling the execution of an effective investment strategy without the need for an active, in-person relationship between client and portfolio manager.

In addition to making MeManaged a fully digital product, available through our mobile app or internet banking platform, we also took another important decision to help us make the service more accessible but without compromising on quality. That decision was to partner with BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager. By pooling assets into different strategies ranging from defensive to aggressive, MeDirect customers have the opportunity, through MeManaged, to have their funds actively managed by an expert portfolio manager at one of the world’s most successful financial services companies.

Finally, the fact that we have developed a digital product and been able to aggregate assets through BlackRock has enabled us to deliver one more advantage for our customers, flexibility. Customers do not need to make any commitments to invest specific amounts, as long as the minimum balance of €100 euro is maintained. Customers are also free to make withdrawals from their MeManaged account whenever they want. Changing investment strategy is also possible by simply retaking the online questionnaire and you can keep up to date with progress through regular reporting and by accessing your portfolio through out app or online banking platform.

Discretionary Portfolio Management is now available to all, thanks to MeDirect’s MeManaged.

For more information visit https://www.medirect.com.mt/invest/discretionary-portfolio-management/

MeDirect Bank (Malta) plc is licensed to undertake the business of banking in terms of the Banking Act (Cap.371) and investment services under the Investment Services Act (Cap.370).

An introduction to GDPR

What does GDPR imply?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a set of rules to ensure better protection of European citizens’ data. The regulation came into force on 25 May 2018, replacing the 1995 Data Protection Directive. Its goal is twofold: to safeguard European citizens’ privacy and to give citizens more rights on what happens with their personal data.

To achieve these goals, the GDPR legislation sets out seven main principles. These are that personal data should be:

  • Processed lawfully, fairly and transparently
  • Used for limited purposes
  • Kept to a minimum
  • Be accurate
  • Kept confidential
  • Kept secure

In addition to the above, every organisation must appoint a data controller who needs to take responsibility for ensuring compliance with the above and being able to demonstrate such compliance. Organisations also have an obligation to disclose any GDPR breeches to the Office of the Information and Data Protection Commissioner.

GDPR also grants citizens rights to access the data held on them by organisations, to have that data deleted.

Protection of your personal data

MeDirect ensures that all personal data is securely stored. To protect your personal details against access by unauthorised persons or loss, we have implemented the necessary technology and ensure that it is kept up to date. With more than 300 employees located in our offices in Malta, Belgium and the Netherlands as well working remotely across many other countries, it is also important to have the correct procedures in place so that information is shared purely on a need to know basis.

In the event that third parties offer a service to MeDirect, a contractual agreement ensures these third parties implement the correct security procedures, such as working with encrypted information, to safeguard your personal data. The transfer of your personal data to third parties will only be for purposes laid down in our agreements with you and/or in line with our terms and conditions.

What is included in our privacy policy?

Our privacy policy, which is available here, adheres to GDPR. It defines what information we collect, why we collect it and with which parties it is shared. The privacy policy also defines your rights and specifies MeDirect’s contact details should you have any questions relating to the security of personal data.

What measures did MeDirect take to be in line with this legislation?

Various initiatives were implemented to protect our clients and employees, such as:

  • Strengthening of our privacy policy.
  • Providing ongoing privacy training to all our employees to ensure utmost security awareness when dealing both with customer and other employee data.
  • Amending of our general terms and conditions and cookie policy.
  • Reviewing how we ask customers for permission to be informed of our commercial offers or to receive newsletters.
  • Amending internal policies to ensure they are in line with GDPR legislation.

MeDirect keeps both its technology and procedures under constant review to ensure not only that it complies with GDPR but that it offers the best possible levels of security to its customers and their data.

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We strive to ensure a streamlined account opening process, via a structured and clear set of requirements and personalised assistance during the initial communication stages. If you are interested in opening a corporate account with MeDirect, please complete an Account Opening Information Questionnaire and send it to corporate@medirect.com.mt.

For a comprehensive list of documentation required to open a corporate account please contact us by email at corporate@medirect.com.mt or by phone on (+356) 2557 4444.