CAIS, a US-based alternative investment platform, has unveiled a series of updates to its platform through an expanded partnership with clearing and custody services provider BNY Mellon’s Pershing.
The expanded partnership is said to offer a new level of integration in order to make investing in alternatives faster, more secure, and easier for advisors.
One of the new features of the updated CAIS platform helps in automating the submission of order forms. This has been enabled by API connectivity between CAIS and the NetX360 investment platform of BNY Mellon’s Pershing.
According to CAIS, removing the need for manual entries of orders is intended to reduce the risk of transfer errors or lost forms, increase security of data, and bring down the number of steps that advisors, fund providers, and investors require.
The updates are aimed at improving access to alternative investment products and order processes as financial advisors and broker-dealers assign to new asset classes on behalf of their clients, said the company.
CAIS founder and CEO Matt Brown said: “Outdated manual processes have been one of the major barriers to alternative investment fund allocation for the independent wealth management community.
“As access to alternatives goes mainstream, our collaboration with Pershing highlights CAIS’s ongoing commitment to supporting advisors as they transact, and report on, the full spectrum of alternative investments.”
The updates are said to build on the two firms’ existing partnership, which saw automation of manual transaction and documentation processes to decrease the possibility of human error and boosting the ability of advisors in browsing, researching, and allocating to alternative investments.
BNY Mellon’s Pershing global strategy and product management director Justin Fay said: “We are pleased to expand on this partnership with CAIS that will enhance the alternative investing capabilities being offered to advisors.
“As investor demand for alternatives continues to grow, our priority is to make all aspects of the process more efficient and less time consuming.”
Recently, CAIS secured growth capital of more than $325m from Apollo, Motive Partners, Reverence Capital Partners, Franklin Templeton, Stone Point Ventures, and Hamilton Lane. The funding values the alternative investment platform at over $1.1bn.
