Aviva puts 50 million pounds into a new digital sterling fund share class
Aviva Investors has opened a tokenised share class for its sterling money market fund on the XRP Ledger, with an investment of 50 million pounds from Aviva. Eligible investors can hold digital representations of fund shares while the underlying portfolio remains in place. The launch follows a dollar-denominated class and takes investments across the two offerings above 86 million pounds.
Economics & Markets··Midday
Aviva commits 50 million pounds to sterling shares
Aviva Investors, the asset manager, has added a sterling-denominated product to its digital fund offering. Its new share class represents interests in the Sterling Liquidity Fund on the XRP Ledger, a blockchain used to record digital assets. Aviva invested 50 million pounds in the class. With the company's earlier dollar-denominated offering, investments in its two tokenised share classes now exceed 86 million pounds.[1], [2]
The conventional sterling fund manages about 22 billion pounds. That is the size of the existing fund, rather than the sum placed on the blockchain. The digital-twin structure keeps its underlying portfolio and existing fund arrangements in place while recording ownership digitally.[1]
The portfolio stays in short-term sterling debt
Established in 2002, the fund is based in Ireland and operates under the UCITS investment-fund framework. It buys high-grade short-term debt denominated in sterling, targets low-risk returns and provides daily liquidity. Aviva says eligible investors retain the investment objective, risk profile, liquidity characteristics and regulatory protections attached to conventional shares. Investors meeting the access requirements use digital wallets to hold the new class.[1]
Custody and issuance keep separate roles
Komainu, an institutional digital-asset custodian, supports the share class. Licuido supplies infrastructure for issuing and managing the digital assets, while BNY Mellon continues to hold the underlying fund assets. The launch follows the July 29 introduction of a digital class for Aviva's US Dollar Liquidity Fund, which received approval from the Central Bank of Ireland. Aviva Investors chief executive Mark Versey said the company wanted to expand its tokenised investment products and believed the approach could improve efficiency and client outcomes. Those benefits remain management's assessment.[1]
Nigel Khakoo, Ripple's senior vice president of trading and markets, said institutions increasingly wanted continuous market access and faster settlement. The companies did not disclose the number of outside investors subscribing to the sterling class. Aviva's own commitment is the disclosed 50 million pounds investment in that offering.[1]
