Wall Street Letter VOL. XLV, NO. 35 - Nov. 7, 2013 | Page 5

7 – 13 NOV 2013

TECHNOLOGY

Abacus to open in Europe, targets firm infrastructure

I

T platform provider Abacus Group has plans to open an office in Europe in the coming year, according to Art Murphy,
director of client development.
Europe is the next big step for the company which currently
runs offices in Connecticut, New York and San Francisco, according to Murphy.
“Europe is a brand new market for us to break into,” said
Murphy, adding the company has yet to choose a location for
the new office. “While we have no physical clients located there,
we foresee this being an opportunity to onboard clients. It is a
big market for us to have access to.”
The company currently has 40 employees and 250 clients
served by the various offices, with a significant percentage of
staff and client additions coming through the Dallas office,
Murphy said.
Hiring in Europe will follow the schema used for the Dallas of-

TRADING FIRMS

Buysiders still in
evaluation mode for
SEF trading
Buysiders are still in evaluation
mode with regards to trading on
swaps execution facilities as they
try to assess which venue will lead
in liquidity in advance of a January
trading deadline, according to Sean
Owens, director for fixed Income and
derivatives at Woodbine Associates.
While dealers have adopted SEFs
and begun trading, buy-side firms
are still testing the waters to find the
best liquidity, Owens said. In the
meantime, they are still conducting
swap trades in the traditional bilateral
manner due to the ease of finding the
liquidity they need, he added.
“Come January participants will be
required to trade on SEFs and must
be seamlessly connected to the venues
with their FCMs [futures commission merchants] to get pre-trade
credit,” said Owens, adding the delay
gives them a chance to consider the

fice, which entails vetting the local professionals, a process that has
led to the onboarding of 57 clients this year, according to Murphy.
Due to regulations in Europe, this protocol for hiring will be
paramount for Abacus seeing as the enterprise infrastructure
they offer is instrumental for many companies aiming to be in
compliance with local regulations, he said.
Murphy added that the people who live and work day-to-day
in these environments are best suited for roles within a new
Abacus office.
“The target currently is Europe and getting that market up
and running,” according to Murphy.
The vendor hosts cloud infrastructure solutions for hedge
funds and private equity firms to cut down the need for human capital and server room space, according to Murphy. The
vendor’s offerings include IT maintenance and redundant data
storage in one of three US offices, he added.

nuances of each platform. “We won’t
begin to get a clear sense for which
will yield the best liquidity until
sometime after January, but in the
meantime firms are getting better
liquidity through bilateral execution.”
In addition to available liquidity,
buyside firms are also considering the
rules of the venue and the orientation
of the venue towards dealers, customers or both, according to Owens.
Once firms start using the different
venues they will really see the differences, he added.
“From that point, people will begin
to decide which platforms to utilize…
some may prefer one SEF for their
order book and others for RFQ capabilities,” he said, noting it is highly
likely buysiders will opt use as many
as they can.
According to an October 24 industry update report from Keefe Bruyette
& Woods, SEF volume has been growing since the October 2 deadline for
SEF compliance. In credit derivatives
trading, Bloomberg’s SEF is leading,
capturing 78% of the volume through
October 23. GFI Group’s Swaps Exchange captured 14% of volume at that

point, with the IntercontinentalExchange’s Swap Trade rounding out the
top three with 3% share.
In interest rate swap trading ICAP
SEF captured 38% of the market share,
while Tullet Prebon’s tpSEF grabbed
a 25% share and BGC Partners’ BGC
Derivatives Markets captured 24%.
DATA

Axioma plans exotic
derivatives for multiasset risk platform
Axioma’s multi-asset class risk
platform will see an expansion into
more complex derivatives in 2014,
according to Lev Zaks, head of multiasset class business development.
The recently released platform, Axioma Risk, covers equities, commodities, credit, fixed income, currency,
and numerous derivatives. Zaks
noted the company is open to add
alternative asset classes in the overthe-counter market, including novel
derivatives and structured products
as they come out, Zaks noted.

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