Calastone’s SWIFT BIC hosting service

All Calastone clients can now benefit from SWIFT network connectivity free of charge by utilising Calastone’s SWIFT infrastructure. Calastone will either host its participants’ Bank Identifier Codes (BIC) free of charge or enable participating firms to use the Calastone BIC. This approach enables participants to immediately communicate with the global community of mutual fund counterparties through a single connection to the Calastone transaction network. Services offered will include account opening, trading, switches, ReReg, Recs and settlement.

What are the advantages of using Calastone’s BIC?
Calastone is continually looking for ways in which to make order-handling processes more efficient. We have invested heavily in SWIFT infrastructure with full data centre DR back-up. By opening up our infrastructure, we believe that our participants will benefit from additional connectivity to our fast-growing base of counterparties. All our participants need do is apply to SWIFT for a BIC and Calastone will handle all the message connectivity. This approach means that clients will only need to pay SWIFT transaction costs, with the SWIFT BIC infrastructure being provided by Calastone free of charge.

What our clients say about free BIC hosting
Matthew Collis, Director Group Head of Trading from Brewin Dolphin added, "We welcome this initiative. Once again, Calastone has identified a practical and cost effective approach to help the wealth management community reduce their connectivity and messaging costs. Calastone's approach provides choice of connectivity to the global mutual fund market and we welcome the opportunity to be connected via Calastone to the global SWIFT network".

Least Cost Routing
In addition to Calastone’s approach to transaction order handling, lies a sophisticated Least Cost Routing (LCR) solution. The Calastone LCR assesses the various communication options available and ensures that every transaction message is sent via the most cost effective and efficient route. Adopted from Smart Order Routing techniques common in global equity markets, least cost routing ensures that the mutual fund industry takes a step closer to MiFID compliance. MiFID has paved the way to ensure that competition and innovation have brought significant benefits to the investment community at large. Calastone’s Least Cost Routing is designed to ensure that participants benefit from the most cost efficient order-handling processes.

How can I take advantage of free BIC hosting and Least Cost Routing?
Please call Alexander Hofmann or Anna Graziano on +44 20 7367 5920 for further information. For offshore, please call Sebastien Chaker on +352 691 888 813.