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The next phase of
FX for Euronext
Kevin Wolf, CEO of Euronext FX, on the firm’s evolution and recent rebranding,
how it differentiate from other FX platforms, and why the launch of its Singapore
matching engine is a crucial component of the business.
You recently rebranded FastMatch
to Euronext FX – what does this
name change reflect?
Kevin Wolf: The key objective of
the rebranding was to confirm to
the marketplace that Euronext is
committed to the FX business. Ad-
ditionally, Euronext has a strong
brand name and reputation across
a large community which includes
many firms we are looking to bring
onto the Euronext FX platform.
It is also important to understand
that while Spot FX is an unreg-
ulated market, Euronext's core
expertise is in operating regulated
markets. What our existing and
potential customers infer from the
re-brand and Euronext ownership
is that we operate in an even more
transparent, fair and robust way,
with proper redundancy, compli-
ance, risk, and all the infrastruc-
ture that you would desire of any
trading platform with which you
are interacting.
I do want to highlight that we
have retained the FastMatch name
for the technology, and there
are a couple of reasons for that.
Firstly, the FastMatch technology
has a stellar reputation for speed,
flexibility, continuous enhance-
46 // TheTrade // Fall 2019
ment and unmatched functionality,
and that is not changing. We also
want customers to understand that
while we are now operating under
the Euronext FX brand name, we
are not merging or replacing the
FX technology with Euronext's
trading platform, Optiq. Our busi-
ness is integrated on multiple lev-
els, and we work very closely with
the rest of the Euronext family. At
the same time, we have a dedicated
client-facing team of FX specialists
and a separate core technology
stack, but we are working on har-
monising certain mechanisms.
The re-branding also signifies
the maturing of our organisation
as we move into the next phase
of our growth and strive to stay
ahead of changes in market struc-
ture and regulation. A few exam-
ples to highlight include the recent
naming of a new COO and a new
head of Liquidity Management.
Both individuals were previously
acting in other capacities for Eu-
ronext FX and will further ensure
that we can continue to scale our
business and deliver on our strate-
gic objectives, such as the launch
of our fourth matching engine in
Singapore.
Kevin Wolf, CEO, Euronext FX
How has Euronext FX evolved these
past few years?
When you are starting out oper-
ating a trading platform, building
volume is critical and the cliché
that liquidity begets liquidity is
absolutely true. But you do get to a
certain point where that's no lon-
ger the primary goal. We are trying
to grow in a way that makes our