Calastone Continues To Snap Up Clients

Calastone, the mutual fund automation provider, has added a number of high profile clients to its settlement and matching service over recent weeks. Martin Currie Investment Management, Gartmore, Aberdeen Unit Trust Managers, Heartwood Wealth Management and M&G Securities have all signed up to the service in July.

Calastone launched its settlement service for mutual funds in March 2010, rivalling Euroclear’s UK&I CREST system.

Calastones model is based on a matching engine approach, designed to calculate counterparty net settlement positions together with automated notification of legal title in fund unit positions.

The mutual fund industry, despite its age, still suffers from difficulties with processing. In a recent automation report from J.P.Morgan, Lee C. Adams, executive director, Global Custody Service said: As an industry, we have been trying to remove faxes from the trade life cycle ever since they were introduced, but they are remarkably resilient. You can remove them from one part of the processing chain, client segment or region and they pop up somewhere else. Phone, email, and excel spreadsheet also dominate messaging within the industry.

Laurence Mumford, retail chief operating officer at M&G Investments said: “As a member of the IMA’s investment funds operation committee, M&G are fully committed to initiatives to automate mutual fund dealing. M&G’s decision to sign up to Calastone’s settlement messaging represents the latest in a series of initiatives to eliminate inefficiencies and reduce costs.

Tim Archer, head of operations, at Redmayne-Bentley and Co-chair of the APCIMS Operations committee added, I am delighted to see the fund managers signing up to the Calastone settlement service. Working towards full lifecycle automation will ultimately benefit the investor, we completely support straight-through-processing and applaud Calastone for providing a service designed from the ground up for the primary funds market.