Aviva Investors moves traditional funds onto XRPL with Ripple deal

Aviva Investors has launched a deliberate pilot to convert conventional fund structures into digital tokens using the XRP Ledger, partnering with Ripple to develop issuance and management capabilities. This marks Aviva Investors’ first material engagement with tokenization technology and represents Ripple’s initial formal tie-up with a Europe-based investment manager. The project is framed as a multi-year collaboration extending through 2026 and beyond, designed to move beyond proofs of concept toward operationalized products. Proponents argue the approach can shorten settlement timelines, trim middle- and back-office overheads, enable fractional ownership and embed compliance checks into the asset lifecycle. The initiative arrives amid a broader institutional shift: global managers are increasingly experimenting with onchain vehicles for cash-like funds, private credit and tokenized real estate, and some have already launched regulated products. Choosing XRPL carries trade-offs: it is a payments-focused public ledger with a low-energy consensus model and a known validator set, attributes that support scalability but raise questions about feature richness compared with smart-contract-first chains. For Aviva, the primary tests will be legal wrapper design, custody and key management, distribution to regulated clients, and how automated controls map to local securities and AML rules. For Ripple, the project is a way to demonstrate a reference implementation for asset managers in Europe and to gather evidence that regulated financial instruments can be administered on its ledger. Success will depend on integrated infrastructure — custodians, transfer agents, regulatory reporting tools and institutional-grade wallets — and on consistent supervisory guidance across jurisdictions. Short-term outcomes are likely to be operational pilots and limited product launches, while broader adoption hinges on resolved compliance frameworks and robust third-party services. If the experiment scales, it could compress settlement windows, broaden retail and institutional access through fractionalisation, and shift some servicing revenue pools toward digital infrastructure providers. Conversely, setbacks on regulatory clarity or custody incidents would slow uptake and raise reputational and compliance costs for early movers. Overall, the deal is a pragmatic, measured step into tokenized funds rather than a wholesale conversion of legacy products; it signals industry intent and will serve as a testbed for governance, operational design and market appetite.