Aria Structured Investments s.a.r.l, the Luxembourg-domiciled boutique asset manager has connected the group’s Aria Protected Funds to Calastone’s fast growing mutual funds transaction network and its funds are now live on the network.

Integral to the service offered to their end clients, Aria Structured Investments can now benefit from transaction automation in buying units of mutual funds from a single point of connectivity to Calastone’s growing community of mutual fund providers.

Aria joins a growing list of Luxembourg-based participants reaping the benefits of operational efficiency, reduced risk and reduced cost from connecting to Calastone’s cross-border transaction network. Whatever the size of participant firm (from tier one to boutique firms); whether located on or offshore; whether communicating domestically or internationally with counterparties; whether preferring manual processes or standards and protocols, Calastone’s transaction network enables full mutual fund industry interoperability. Participant firms don’t need to pay any membership fees nor do they have to invest in new technology because Calastone deals with orders and flow in any format; normalising all messages to Calastone ISO 20022.

Kevin Lee, Managing Director of Calastone explained, “Luxembourg is one of the key asset management centres and a leading location for global fund distribution. We are committed to extending our growth in this region to become the cross-border transaction network of choice for the entire mutual fund industry, regardless of geographic location or size of fund manager, provider, and distributor or transfer agent.”

Commenting on their decision to join Calastone’s transaction network Dr. Scott Levy, Head of Operations and Risk of Aria Structured Investments added, “Calastone’s low cost, open access approach to connectivity makes it easy for the mutual fund industry to connect. We welcome their efforts to improve competition in the mutual fund arena whilst enabling us to facilitate dealing for our clients and helping us to increase our distribution both onshore and offshore in a cost efficient manner. We have been impressed with the flexibility of the Calastone business ess model and Calastone’s ability to provide connectivity to those counterparties who may not already have the technology or the budgets to do business electronically by other means.”