Distributors

Different funds using different protocols?

Fund distributors want access to multi-instrument, domestic & international funds & a simple approach to order generation & transaction management.

Calastone’s transaction network offers an efficient channel to a growing population of global fund providers & transfer agents. 

Calastone helps the transaction lifecycle become more cost efficient, cost effective & lower risk.   We provide a fully electronic STP approach, whatever the preferred messaging protocol or format.

Our Execution Management System (EMS), a web-enabled user access interface, helps distributors monitor & manage transactions, & any exceptions, on a real-time basis. 

To join Calastone, distributors do not need any additional technology or need to pay membership or joining fees.

One way to manage them all.

What is your fund coverage and how do distributors connect to fund providers?

Because Calastone acts as a network, not a platform, we are able to automate 100% of flows between distributors and those fund groups to whom you are connected (including institutional share classes and ‘closed’ funds). Unlike with a platform set-up, Calastone facilitates connection between distributor and fund provider on a one-to-one basis. Some points to note:

1. Connection is made exclusively between the distributor and the fund provider as a direct one-to-one relationship.
2. Calastone does not operate as a platform but as a network and as such we do not hold static data or detailed funds information.
3. Furthermore, because Calastone does not restrict the funds or asset classes that can be accessed by a distributor, in principle any fund that the distributor buys into today should continue to be available once both parties are connected to Calastone. This has been an educational process for both fund provider and distributor as the set-up is unique and new to the industry.
4. Calastone does not get involved in the relationship between the distributor and the fund provider. However, by giving the fund manager control over who buys their funds, Calastone has been able to connect numerous buyers and sellers of institutional share classes and ‘closed’ funds.
5. The Benefit to the fund provider and to the distributor is the automation of those trades which may have been historically kept off a platform structure due to the pre-existing ‘many-to-one’ relationship.

To reiterate, this has been an educational process for the whole industry, however connected parties are now seeing the benefits of increased automation for institutional flow, access to broker class or ‘i class’ shares etc. Distributors who are connected to Calastone have significantly increased their STP rates and reduced risk for the organisation as a whole.