Aviva Investors has formed a new partnership with Ripple to support the tokenisation of traditional fund structures.

The collaboration aims to help the company bring traditional financial assets with real utility to the decentralised open-source public blockchain XRP Ledger (XRPL).

Aviva Investors said that the XRPL will enable it to issue and manage its tokenised funds using "fast, secure, low-cost" blockchain transactions, with the lack of mining required to settle transactions expected to support energy efficiency.

The move marks the first-of-its-kind for Aviva Investors, as the organisation explores the roll out of tokenised solutions to join its existing product portfolio.

The Ledger also offers a number of other key features, including compliance capabilities, designed to support financial institutions operating in regulated markets.

Since 2012, the network has processed over four billion transactions, supporting more than seven million active wallets.

The new collaboration will see the companies work together throughout 2026 and beyond as part of a long-term strategy.

The partnership is Ripple's first with an investment management business based in Europe.

“We believe there are many benefits that tokenisation can bring to investors, including improvements in terms of both time and cost efficiency,” said Jill Barber, chief distribution officer, Aviva Investors. “As the investment arm of the UK’s leading insurer, we have a long track record with regards to innovation.

“We are committed to adopting technological advancements that we believe can bring about positive change for our business, and we think tokenised funds can be hugely beneficial to our clients.”

Nigel Khakoo, vice president, trading and markets at Ripple said that tokenisation is moving away from experimentation to large-scale production.

"Institutions like Aviva Investors are now focused on how to deploy regulated financial assets at scale," continued Khakoo. "The development of tokenised fund structures is one that we believe can bring huge technological efficiencies to the investment sector, and we expect this to take full effect over the next decade."

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