For as long as anyone can remember, the back office operations of the UK investment fund sector have been a haven of costly manual practices. Faxes, phone calls and paper have held sway in the post-transaction processing of UK funds long after computers took over the settlement and servicing of other financial instruments such as equities, bonds and derivatives.

That may be about to change. This summer, Euroclear UK & Ireland (EUI), which operates Crest, Britain’s securities settlement system, will launch the first stage of a programme to automate UK fund transactions. When the second phase follows in summer 2009, EUI will offer straight-through-processing of fund transactions in the UK and Ireland and in the Channel Island and Isle of Man offshore centres, holding out prospects of sharply lower costs for companies served by its system.