Aviva Investors has launched a new tokenized share class for the firm’s largest fund with approximately £22 billion ($29.37 billion) in assets under management, per a joint announcement made with Ripple on Monday, October 26.
The launch of a new tokenized share class for the Aviva Investors Sterling (GBP) Liquidity Fund represents a significant expansion to the firm’s tokenized fund offering and has turned the company into one of the largest asset management providers to offer such a product in Europe.
Furthermore, Aviva unveiled an investment of £50 million ($66 million) in this new tokenized share class.
Remarking on the launch, CEO of Aviva Investors, Mark Versey, highlighted that the move represents a sign of its ‘clear intent’ to become a leader ‘in this area’ and underlined the importance of the partnership with Ripple:
This expansion of our tokenised offering shows our clear intent to be a leader in this area and sets the groundwork for a future expansion of our capabilities. We believe tokenised funds can increase efficiency and ultimately lead to improved client outcomes. Our partnership with Ripple has once again been vital to our efforts, and we look forward to continuing working together, as we look to further explore the possibilities of tokenisation.
Ripple’s Senior Vice President, Nigel Khakoo, expressed delight with the pace of tokenized fund launches, while emphasizing the importance of his own company and the XRP ledger in ensuring ‘compliance, privacy and security features needed by institutions.’
What is the Aviva Investors Sterling Liquidity Fund?
The Sterling Liquidity Fund, for its part, was established in 2002 and is domiciled in Ireland. At its core, it invests in short-term and high-quality debt instruments denominated in sterling.
Its stated goal is to provide investors with comparatively low-risk returns, while enabling daily access to the traders’ money.
Notably, the new asset class uses a ‘digital twin’ structure where, rather than being transferred directly onto the blockchain, the holdings are represented digitally, and the conventional structure, as well as regulatory protections and custody arrangements, remain in place.
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