Blockchain could save asset managers $2.7bn a year Posted on : Feb 22 - 2018

Blockchain could save asset managers $2.7bn a year if the investment industry shunned the laborious manual practices involved in buying and selling funds in favour of using online ledger technology, according to research published on Thursday.

Technology company Calastone said blockchain, which is a giant online ledger, could revolutionise the processes involved in buying and selling funds, generating large savings for investors in the process.

It estimated that based on daily trade volumes of funds in the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan and Australia, £1.9bn — or $2.7bn — in savings were possible.

Ken Tregidgo, deputy chief executive of Calastone, said significant cost savings could be made by using distributed market infrastructure. For each transaction, different companies, ranging from transfer agents to asset managers, often have to input the same information, which is time-consuming and can be prone to errors.

“That is a cost that is being paid and is ultimately being paid by the end investor, by you and me,” he said.

Andrew Tomlinson, chief marketing officer at Calastone, added: “There is £1.9bn that is being burnt in the cost of buying the fund rather than accruing and adding value to the investor.”

Calastone calculated the potential cost savings of moving to distributed and mutualised market infrastructure by using data from a Deloitte study on fund expenses. By stripping out the costs that are traditionally incurred during the buying and selling process, but could be moved to blockchain, it calculated potential savings.

Last year, Calastone said it had successfully used blockchain to buy and sell mutual funds under test conditions. It said the technology proved capable of processing transactions equivalent to a full day’s trades sourced from across its client base, which spans more than 1,400 fund distribution and asset manager clients across 35 countries View More