London, 23rd November 2009 - Calastone Limited, the independent cross-border transaction network for the mutual funds industry, announced today that Pictet & Cie (Europe) S.A., one of the leading Luxembourg-domiciled fund providers, has signed an agreement to make its funds available via the global Calastone transaction network.

 

Pictet, acknowledged as one of the premier financial institutions in Europe, will benefit from connectivity to Calastone’s rapidly expanding list of global fund distributors and aggregators through a single connection, reaping the immediate advantages of cross-border trading, global reach and easily scalable capacity. Pictet can take advantage of the STP efficiencies on offer through automation of the entire mutual fund transaction lifecycle including settlement and business flow process automation. 

 

By connecting to Calastone, providers are able to offer their open architecture funds to a wide variety of investors irrespective of domicile or preferred messaging protocol. Calastone enables providers to reduce costs, gain visibility and keep control of their order flow, without any membership fees or technology expenditure. All Calastone participants enjoy straight through processing regardless of their size or technology capabilities and are able to track exceptions on a real-time basis, enabling them to react quickly and efficiently.

 

Commenting on the agreement, Kevin Lee, Managing Director of Calastone, said, “We are delighted that Pictet, one of the best known fund managers in Europe with a rich heritage and an enviable global reputation, has chosen to make its funds available on Calastone’s global network.” 

 

“When we launched 18 months ago, we initially focused on the domestic UK market, ever mindful of the demands of our domestic participants to access the international fund community”, Lee added.  “Luxembourg is a key market for us.  The mutual fund community has asked us to help them automate their trade, execution and settlement flow, and, by connecting to Calastone, remove the dependency on fax, now widely recognised as a legacy inefficiency.  Our full settlement service is changing the mutual funds landscape enabling all firms to benefit from STP. It is our ultimate aim to offer the entire mutual funds industry complete front to back STP regardless of participants' incumbent technology or connectivity preference."

 

Laurent Moser, Head of Pictet Funds transfer agent services at Pictet & Cie, Luxembourg added, “We have been impressed with Calastone’s progress in a relatively short period of time and we are pleased to be connected. We look forward to reaping the efficiencies that automation will bring and being able to make our funds available to Calastone’s growing global network of participants.”