Calastone is the only venue where the Australian managed fund industry can meet to send and receive messages electronically irrespective of an organisation's size, preferred messaging protocol or technology.

Kevin Lee, Joint Founder of Calastone said EQT coming on to the Calastone network represented a big step forward for both Calastone, and the local managed fund industry.

"Leaders of the industry have been quick to embrace the benefits of automation," he said. "Connecting EQT, which is such a significant trustee, is a great step forward for those funds yet to bring these benefits to themselves and their members."

EQT Head of Corporate Fiduciary & Financial Services, Harvey Kalman said that EQT saw a number of benefits in using Calastone both for the funds it manages and those it provides fiduciary and responsible entity services for. "We see significant risk management, cost and efficiency improvements from this approach, which greatly reduces the potential for error in back-office transactions.

"We will be rolling out Calastone's order routing network across our unlisted unit trusts over the next few months as part of an upgrade of our IT systems," Mr Kalman said.

Lee says the speed with which Australia has taken up electronic transactions in the managed fund space shows the market is ripe to meet its more developed counterparts in the US and Europe.

"Electronic transactions offer risk management and cost benefits that just can't be realised with old-fashioned fax and phone-based processes," he said. "Australian funds have only been offered cost effective automation since we came to Australia last year, and it's clear from the reaction that this is something they've really been waiting for."

Calastone's Transaction Network enables buyers and sellers of managed funds to communicate orders electronically by providing a universal message communication and translation service. It's a single connection to the global funds market.

Calastone clients (the order senders - platforms, custodians and brokers) send their orders over the Calastone Transaction Network in the format of their choice. Calastone's system then converts the order into the format of the provider's choice (the order receiver, fund manager or registry), and forwards the order. Confirmations are sent back through the network in the same way. Clients can see status of all orders at all times via the Calastone Execution Management System (EMS)- something that has never been possible before. Users have instant visibility of any issues or orders needing attention, further reducing risk.

Calastone is also involved with the automation of superannuation.