Julien Hammerson

Calastone, the global funds transaction network, today celebrates its ten-year anniversary as well as its 300 millionth message processed this month, a substantial increase on its 200 million messages milestone reached in March 2017.

The 50 percent growth in transaction volume over the last 12 months is a testament to the power and momentum that Calastone has been able to generate over the last decade that has seen managed funds grow into a global industry and critical economic pillar.  After making its trade debut in the UK on 22 May 2008, Calastone has scaled from a domestic British start-up to a successful global enterprise and the largest global fund transaction network. Following its early success in the UK, the company quickly expanded, opening offices in Europe, Australia and Asia.

Australia has been a key market for Calastone, where its technology now supports over 97% of transactions processed by investment platforms, with 65% of fund managers using the service to receive and process investor orders and reporting.

Sarah Hayward, Head of Australia and New Zealand Calastone, says “In Australasia, Calastone has grown to be a critical strategic partner for platforms, fund managers and administration providers who have harnessed technology, specifically scalable networks that offer centralised processing, to help future proof their businesses and focus on growth. This has been paramount where regulatory changes have consumed resources and highlighted the need for improved value and less risk for consumers.

Julien Hammerson, CEO Calastone, adds “I am immensely proud to see how far the business has come and the transformative effect Calastone has had in automating global funds order processing. The speed of our growth is testament to the quality, commitment and drive of our team, along with the support of our customers.

Calastone has had a significant impact on the global funds industry, generating hundreds of millions of pounds of cost savings for the benefit of all. We remain committed to our continued investment in innovation and I am excited about the huge potential that our new blockchain infrastructure offers to our clients across the expanding number of markets that we serve.”

The company’s transaction network enables its customers to reduce cost and risk through automated fund order processing, now enabling over 15,000 trading links globally and processing over A$159 billion worth of fund transactions per month. A study from Forrester recently quantified the impact of the firm’s transaction network as being over A$811 million* in cost savings for funds market participants. Calastone predicts greater cost efficiencies in the future through its innovative, blockchain enabled distributed market infrastructure, forecasting additional annual savings of A$3.4 billion.

Key points:

• Ten years since its first trade, Calastone celebrates 300 million messages transacted on its network
• Since launching in 2008, Calastone has grown from a UK domestic business to the largest global fund transaction network, processing over A$159 billion in trades per month across 35 markets
• Calastone’s network has lowered the cost of processing by more than A$811 million*

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Sarah Hayward

Calastone, the global funds transaction network, has announced a new automated solution to support a faster, safer and more efficient transfer of clients’ managed funds holdings across platforms.

Following a successful pilot, several of Australia’s leading fund managers, administrators and platforms are now connected to Calastone’s Transfers solution, which automates in-specie transfers, accelerating the typically two-week transfer process to possible completion in under an hour.

Platform operators BT, netwealth investments limited and Macquarie have joined major fund firms including Vanguard, Platinum, APN Property Group and BTIM as the first adopters of this new innovative solution. Additionally, registry service providers RBC Investor & Treasury Services and White Outsourcing have also connected on behalf of the collective 11 fund managers under their administration.

Calastone Managing Director Australia & New Zealand Sarah Hayward said, “broader industry adoption of the solution can further accelerate the process to just minutes, bringing massive relief to back offices that support Australia’s competitive investment sector.

“Transferring a client from one platform to another, initiated typically by an adviser, involves a complex and manual exchange of signed forms at the platform, custodian, registry and fund levels to allow holdings to move without a capital gains tax event or forcing the investor to exit and re-enter the market.

“Working in collaboration with our clients we have adapted the solution from our proven UK Transfers solution to suit Australian requirements and provide a unified and automated way of managing the transfer process, with more certainty and less risk,” she said.

Paul Hagger, Head of Custody at netwealth investments limited commented: “We signed up to Calastone Transfers because a faster, more secure and electronic transfer process enhances our ability to service our clients. Visibility is also a key feature of the solution, allowing us to see a real-time audit trail and status of the transfer so both the sender and receiver can follow the process and know once the transfer is complete.”

Calastone’s Transfers Solution follows the firm’s well established order routing solution that was introduced in 2011 to automate the order flow of managed funds between platforms and fund managers. In 2016 Calastone rolled out its reporting solution that automates the flow of information involved in unit holding reconciliations and income distributions.

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