Calastone Celebrates First Anniversary______

Calastone Limited, the independent cross-border transaction network for the mutual funds industry, today marked the first anniversary of live mutual fund transactions. On 5 May 2008, Cofunds placed the first transaction on Calastone’s network which was executed on behalf of Baring Asset Management by Northern Trust. Since then, Calastone has actively signed up fund distributors (including Nucleus, Transact, Lifetime and Brewin Dolphin), fund providers (including Gartmore, Sarasin, Martin Currie, T. Bailey and Schroders) and third party administrators/transfer agents (including IFDS). In March of this year, Calastone extended its capabilities to offer transactions in equities.

By connecting to Calastone’s transaction network, participants benefit from fully electronic STP throughout the transaction lifecycle, whatever their preferred messaging protocol. They gain electronic connectivity through a single connection and orders are sent electronically via Calastone, which provides a universal message communication and ‘translation’ service. By connecting to Calastone, participants are able to remove manual order entry processing, leading to lower costs, reduced risk, and increased visibility and control of their order flow.

“It has been an encouraging first year for Calastone, as we continue to establish ourselves as the alternative independent mutual fund transaction network for the mutual funds industry,” commented Kevin Lee, Managing Director of Calastone. “Calastone was founded to offer competition and to address market inefficiencies, offering the industry the ability to transact mutual funds through the incumbent market model regardless of preferred method of connectivity, messaging protocol or standards. The industry had determined that ISO20022 will become the de facto standard for mutual funds, rather than ISO15022 or FIX Protocol. The industry transition will take some time; however, by connecting to Calastone, clients will enjoy the immediate benefits of scale and process efficiencies, and will be able to take advantage of the cross-border investment opportunities on offer, particularly the significant growth we are witnessing from Luxembourg, Dublin and Asia.”

Commenting on the anniversary, Ken Tregidgo, Director of Business Development of Calastone said, “Since our launch, the rate at which industry participants have signed up to Calastone has been accelerating. Whether fund provider, fund distributor or transfer agent/third party administrator, different participants are realising a reduction in cost and risk and are enjoying the benefits of scale. Calastone is also helping clients to overcome business challenges and improve business processes including account opening, re-registrations, creations and liquidations, switches, client reporting and account management administration. Connectivity to Calastone now removes the entire paper trail and shortens the settlement cycle by offering complete front-to-back STP, right through to CREST and Euroclear settlement, irrespective of technology or connectivity preferences. We help clients address business process challenges.”

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