LONDON and TAIPEI, Taiwan, October 29, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --
Calastone, the global fund transaction network today announced a pioneering new collaboration with the Taiwan Depository & Clearing Corporation (TDCC). On 5th November, TDCC will celebrate the launch of their innovative fund order routing service in Taiwan. The collaboration between the TDCC and Calastone will enable Taiwan Fund distributors, master agents and offshore fund managers to benefit from the global trend towards automated order flow processing.
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Approximately half of all manual orders with cross-border fund managers originate from Taiwan, representing approximately three million faxed orders per year. On 20th September this year Calastone hosted a seminar in Taipei, where a capacity audience debated and examined the mounting evidence for order handling automation in Taiwan and the benefit automation offers to offshore trades.
In recognition of Calastone's experience and expertise in operating a global funds transaction network for more than 300 fund distributors and fund manager clients, on October 6th, 2012 the TDCC and the Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) approved Calastone as an official service provider for the TDCC. In addition, in September 2012, Calastone was the first service provider to have successfully completed and tested its fund messaging communication interface with the TDCC. This message testing also included leading independent asset manager Aberdeen Asia.
Calastone handles over 1 million funds messages per month over its network and is growing at an exceptional 6.2% average compound monthly rate since November 2008. Calastone has developed strong expertise in servicing and automating Taiwan bank distributor orders, by operating a live messaging service in Taiwan since 2010, with 4 Taiwan Bank fund distributors currently processing daily offshore fund orders via Calastone on the SWIFT network.
Calastone already offers live and proven electronic connectivity into the main offshore fund managers and transfer agents, covering close to 70% of offshore fund ranges registered for sale in Taiwan. 21 leading offshore fund managers active in Taiwan have already confirmed joining our Taiwan service including Aberdeen, Barings, BNP Paribas Investment Partners, Invesco, Pictet, Robecco, Threadneedle and Schroders. Calastone is committed and actively working with all offshore fund managers active in Taiwan with the objective to swiftly provide 100% offshore funds connectivity and coverage for Taiwan distributors.
Low Hon Yu, Chief Operating Officer at Aberdeen Asset Management Asia Limited, said, "Calastone has provided automated fund transaction processing to us around the region and in Europe for the past three years. Since 2011 it has been helping to bring automation to some of our Taiwan distributors, where the majority of trades are still processed manually. Now that successful testing with the TDCC is complete, we are hopeful that the whole industry will quickly embrace automation bringing cost and operational efficiencies to the entire process chain. We look forward to receiving the first automated production order via this new Calastone service."
Julien Hammerson, Chairman of Calastone, said, "We are delighted to partner with the TDCC in making automated transactions available to all Taiwan based distributors. We applaud the TDCC and the FSC for taking progressive decisions to realise competitive opportunities for Fund managers and are committed to providing the best service for the market. We have demonstrated our commitment to the Taiwan fund market by opening an office in Taiwan, by establishing a dedicated Mandarin speaking customer service team and by developing a Chinese interface for our online execution management system (EMS). We have delivered and tested our connection to the TDCC in record time and have every confidence that our automated transaction network will have a valuable role to play as it brings increased transparency, stability and reduction in cost for all our participants."
Notes to Editors:
About Calastone
Calastone is the global transaction network for the mutual fund industry.
Calastone was established in March 2007 by three joint-founders, Campbell Brierley (Chief Information Officer), Kevin Lee and Ian Taylor (Chief Executive Officer). From industry experience they recognised that, unlike the institutional market, communications in the mutual fund industry between the fund providers, distributors and their transfer agents was nothing short of archaic. Messaging is still conducted by phone, fax, email, and excel spreadsheet; and the industry has been lacking a transaction network capable of handling and interpreting instructions.
Calastone presents, for the first time, the opportunity for the whole mutual fund market to become fully electronic. The magic of the Calastone Transaction Network (CTN) is that participants are able to send/receive instructions in any way they prefer whatever their messaging protocol. Also, for the first time, participants can track their trades and manage exceptions on a real-time electronic basis throughout the transaction lifecycle. Real-time tracking through Calastone's execution management system helps firms reduce not only their costs but also operating risks.
For further information please visit http://www.calastone.com
For further information contact:
For Calastone:
Sebastien Chaker
Managing Director, Head of Asia
Sebastien.Chaker@Calastone.com
Leo Chen
Director Asia Branch
Tel: +852-2805-1051
Email: Leo.Chen@Calastone.com
Media contacts:
Julia Streets
Streets Consulting Ltd
Tel: +44(0)207-959-2235
Email: Julia.Streets@Streetsconsulting.com
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