Conference Dailys TRADETech FX Daily 2018 | Page 4

THETRADETECHFX DA I LY
MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
news
TRADING VENUES
State Street
acquires FX
TCA startup
BestX
Euronext increases FastMatch
stake amid lawsuit from ex-CEO
EURONEXT HAS UPPED ITS STAKE IN FASTMATCH AS FORMER CHIEF EXECUTIVE
FILES LAWSUIT CLAIMING HE WAS UNFAIRLY DISMISSED.
...(continued from front page)
Full terms of the deal were not disclosed, but
a spokesperson at State Street confirmed it is
expected to close in the third quarter of 2018
subject to customary closing conditions and
regulatory approvals.
BestX was established in 2016 with a view
to create an industry standard for FX TCA. JP
Morgan became BestX’s first major institutional
client when it implemented the firm’s third-par-
ty best execution analysis for electronic FX
trading back in January 2017.
Other major banks that have since signed
up to use the company’s trading technology
include Societe Generale, RBC Capital Markets,
as well as State Street which deployed BestX’s
FX TCA.
State Street’s institutional FX trading
platform, FX Connect, integrated the software
from BestX in order to provide its global client
base with TCA capabilities in January this year.
The deal is the latest move by State Street
to bolster its front office trading services and
product suite after confirming its acquisition
of execution and order management systems
provider Charles River Development in July.
Jay Hooley, chairman and CEO of State Street,
said at the time of the announcement that the
acquisition of Charles River “represents an im-
portant milestone in our digital and technology
transformation aimed at providing clients with
differentiated solutions and data”.
The custodian has since announced its
commitment to build out the Charles River
team, according to Lou Maiuri, head of State
Street Global Markets and State Street Global
Exchange.
“We’re going to be investing more and there
are areas in the front office where we have
complimentary risk and data products,” said
Maiuri. “We can also do more around their
investment book of records, adding more de-
velopers, more sales staff and implementation
teams, mainly growing sales.”
4
THETRADETECHFX DAILY
Issue 1
P
an-European exchange Euronext has increased its stake in FastMatch after facing a lawsuit from
Dmitri Galinov, former chief executive of the FX spot market operator.
Euronext increased its stake by approximately 8% after purchasing shares from Galinov following
his termination as part of a signed agreement. The latest acquisition brings the exchange group’s
total interest in FastMatch to 97.3%.
The move follows news of Galinov’s decision to file a lawsuit against Euronext claiming he was
fired under false pretenses and then denied millions of dollars as part of a ‘Machiavellian scheme’
orchestrated by the exchange operator.
According to reports, Galinov’s lawsuit alleges that he was unfairly dismissed after reporting ‘seri-
ous financial and ethical misconduct’ on the senior management team at Euronext.
Euronext acquired a majority stake in FastMatch in August last year in a $153 million deal as the
exchange looked to expand its FX services and products. FastMatch were committed to the busi-
ness with a 10% interest, but Galinov was dismissed as CEO in June 2018.
Kevin Wolf, US head of fixed income, currency and commodities at Euronext and member of the
FastMatch board of directors was appointed to take over as CEO of FastMatch.
FastMatch was established in 2012 by Credit Suisse, where Galinov previously worked, and FXCM
and currently provides access to large pools of spot FX liquidity to banks, non-bank market makers,
broker-dealers, asset managers and hedge funds.
The business contributed €5.2 million to Euronext’s first quarter revenues this year, after the
exchange group’s CEO, Stéphane Boujnah, told The TRADE that Euronext had been cross-selling
the product into European markets with an increasing part of the business being rolled out to major
European bank centres.