Navesis-ETF, the fully electronic trading platform designed to enhance the way exchange-traded funds are traded, has teamed up with Calastone to provide market connectivity for trade execution for platforms, fund supermarkets and wrap providers.
The service will enable platforms, fund supermarkets and wrap providers the ability to execute ETF transactions via a low cost transaction model that will obtain efficient execution for their end clients.
Distributors will also be able to benefit from Calastone’s trade notification service which will automatically route ETF settlement instructions to either the venue of settlement, or settlement agent.
The announcement, which seeks to bring the Navesis platform closer to its customer base, follows the recent appointment of Jason Griffin to the position of head of sales at Navesis.
Griffin says: “The link up of Navesis and Calastone is a market changing event. Market desire for an efficient means of electronic execution has had a major impact on the investment market and the type of products being distributed and we believe Calastone is excellently placed to provide distributors direct access to the ETF market via Navesis. The launch of this new infrastructure will allow Navesis to make efficient execution in ETFs available to the mutual funds market via a single technical connection to the Calastone transaction network. The simplicity of this solution will allow the platform market to better service their IFA clients and ultimately the end investor.”
Dan Llewellyn (pictured), managing director of product at Calastone, says: “Over the last year we have seen increasing interest from both traditional mutual fund distributors and ETF issuers regarding how these two very different market participants can create the market infrastructure to enable direct automated trade execution. We are now delighted to announce that after a number of industry meetings that encompassed platforms, authorised participants and issuers, Calastone and Tradition Financial Services have come together to allow the platform market to directly access ETFs via the Navesis-ETF Multilateral Trading Facility.”
Nick Blake, head of retail at Vanguard Asset Management, an ETF issuer, says: “An increasing amount of advisers are recognising the benefits that ETFs can add to a low cost, well diversified portfolio. Advisers are increasingly voting with their feet when it comes to a platform able to support the efficient use of ETFs and any initiative that makes ETFs more accessible to more investors has to be good news.”
