Conference Dailys TRADETech FX Daily 2018 | Page 8

A DV E RTO R IAL
Evolving the UBS FX
algo offering
The TRADETech FX Daily sits down with Mike Bichan, global head
of FX distribution and knowledge network, and Christian Gressel,
global head of electronic sales trading, at UBS to discuss the
latest developments to the bank’s FX algo trading business.
What have been the recent developments to UBS’
FX algo offering?
Mike Bichan: We’ve seen a significant increase in
the adoption of algorithmic execution from our cli-
ents this year. Our volumes have risen significantly,
almost doubling year-on-year. At the same time,
we’ve expanded our range of algos and the size of
global sales team to meet client demand.
Christian Gressel: There has been a big increase in
the size of the team that is dedicated to algos at
UBS, partly in order to ensure a clear separation
between our Principal business and our FX algo-
rithm offering. This why we have built out the algo
sales trading and quant development team, put it
behind a barrier and tried to make it very clear and
distinctive in terms of the execution service we
offer our clients.
On the product side, we’ve also introduced
what is often referred to as direct market access
(DMA), including four electronic communication
networks (ECNs), the primary markets (EBS and
Reuters) and access to CME to our algo offering.
We really tried to keep the offering simple. We
didn’t want to go down the route of giving clients
too many different choices and having a confusing
offering, but instead have a core five algos that
provide the tools and execution capabilities our
clients need.
What have clients been asking for and how has this
impacted the direction you have taken with the
suite of algos?
MB: We’ve historically been very strong in algos
aimed at low market impact, but we needed to re-
spond over the past year to client demand for more
urgent executions. This is by delivering access
to external liquidity. In the past, the low market
impact was typically aimed at UBS liquidity execu-
tions, and then relying on the high internalisation
rate at UBS so that only a small portion of the
flow will be hedged in the market. Certainly, the
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THETRADETECHFX DAILY
Issue 1
attitudes of our clients have changed. They want
to access the external market in a fast