Digital technology is increasingly important to fund managers, including in the area of fund distribution.

Funds Europe, in partnership with Calastone, surveyed fund houses for insight into their needs in the years ahead.

The rise of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in the public imagination is paralleled in the funds industry, where an appreciation of how digital assets offer the potential to increase distribution ability is growing.

While many aspects of this nascent market are not yet fully understood, asset managers can already see the benefit of digital assets and the technologies underlying them, such as blockchain.

Digital assets provide not only a new investment asset class, but a new and more efficient means for fund managers and their clients to access existing asset classes. This includes both traditional and alternative investments.