Calastone, the UK's largest independent electronic transaction network for the mutual fund industry, has named Dan Llewellyn as its new managing director of European business development.

The firm said Llewellyn will have overall responsibility for sales, account management, business analysis, product development and market innovation in the UK and Ireland. He joined Calastone in 2009 as director of market innovation.

Before joining Calastone, Llewellyn worked for EMXCo and Euroclear UK and Ireland, where he was responsible for the mutual fund settlement programme and helped develop Euroclear’s product offering to the UK market. He has also worked for Brewin Dolphin, Barings, Kleinwort Benson, Dresdner Bank and RaboBank.

The firm also announced it is now live with eight of the largest Irish transfer agents covering 80 per cent of the market, which it said means Irish fund managers can now reach 100 per cent of the market via Calastone. In addition, Calastone said it recently automated the first hedge fund trade in Ireland using the SWIFT SharP message set, which is fully compliant with the ISO 15022 and ISO 20022 standards.

In related news, Smith & Williamson Investment Management linked up to Calastone’s cross-border transaction and settlement network in January of this year.