Fidelity, a global leader in asset management, is welcomed to Calastone's growing Australian client base. Their membership of Calastone automates the flows from participating platforms and custodians into Fidelity's Australian fund range.

Fidelity's Head of Operations and Client Services, Doug Bryden said, "Fidelity welcomes the automation of this manual process, the reduced risks and the increased levels of accuracy and timeliness it brings. Our adviser clients value accuracy and speedier turnarounds of transactions which Calastone enables by reducing the manual processing in an automated environment."

Calastone went live in Australia in November 2011 with automation of fund application and redemption transactions. Calastone Australia Managing Director, Shannon Sweeney, said that the industry had long recognised the risks involved in manual processing. "There is a genuine interest and engagement to remove these risks and issues," she said. "These manual risky processes can result in inaccuracy in both the registry system of the fund and the platform, can result in missing or are incomplete transactions, and make the client experience slower and less transparent."

Calastone will expand its Australian network to cover wealth software platforms and self-managed super funds in the near term.

"Better automation in processing will help improve the customer experience for a wide range of investors, both institutional and retail," she said. "Calastone is already a Gateway in Superannuation Superstream automation" she said. "Calastone is working to develop and broaden our network and we look forward to making more announcements in this area soon."