The Australian Calastone network went live in 2011, and caters for over 80 fund managers including Aberdeen, Schroders and BlackRock.
Speaking to Investor Daily, Calastone Australia managing director Shannon Sweeney said her company currently connects platforms and institutional flows to fund managers.
Essentially, Calastone connects the big platform providers with the registries of fund managers, said Ms Sweeney.
But Calastone is also looking to move into the off-platform, non-broker directed managed funds space, she said.
If Calastone does make that move, it may be competing directly with the ASX’s AQUA II – now known as the ASX Managed Funds Service (AMFS).
But neither the ASX nor Calastone will be able to operate in the ‘retail’ managed funds space until to key regulatory barriers are removed.
To that end, Calastone has made submissions to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) on Consultation Paper 208, which proposes to grant regulatory relief to the AMFS platform when it comes to Product Disclosure Statement application forms.
Calastone has argued that the AMFS should not be the only institution to be granted the relief.
On top of the regulatory relief, off-platform managed fund transaction networks will also need relief from the Australian Transaction Reports and Analysis Centre (AUSTRAC) in relation to the 100 point identification check.
But it is believed AUSTRAC is only likely to consider the issue once ASIC has made its determination in November, according to Ms Sweeney.
“In terms of our scope it’s about making sure that we’re connecting to all the underlying registries so when we can we launch new connections and distribution we can connect those managers automatically,” said Ms Sweeney.
