NEWS
TECHNOLOGY
IPC to bring multiple offerings to the cloud
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PC Systems is getting ready to offer cloud-based versions of multiple product lines, according to two executives at the vendor. The Jersey City, NJ-based trading communications vendor is readying plans to take its Unigy trading communications platform, as well as individual iterations of voice recording and PDX utilities, to the cloud by the end of the year, said Marianne Leitch, senior vice president, managed services, and Stephen Crowe, vice president, global business development, in an interview. “As our products have evolved…our service model has evolved with it,” Leitch said. The cloud-based options are targeted at smaller firms subject to Dodd-Frank Act requirements for communications recording that can’t afford the infrastructure of a larger firm, Leitch explained. The increased complexity brought by the new regulations is forcing firms to rethink their compliance strategies, she added. “They’re not doing it because
it’s the right thing to do. They’re doing it because they have to,” he said. IPC will start a 90-day pilot with a handful of clients before summer and expects to go live shortly after, Leitch noted. “That’s something that we will definitely be delivering by the end of the year.” Additionally, the firm announced on Friday the creation of a managed services division aimed at helping clients meet upcoming Dodd-Frank and MiFID regulatory requirements. The business unit will provide guidance and products to clients in trading, communications infrastructure, voice recording and PBX, Leitch said. The vendor eventually will hire a few senior salespeople to help bolster its roughly 100-strong global sales force as part of the push to grow existing relationships and build new ones, Crowe explained. He will also be looking to poach new hires from other consulting firms, adding it is a change in strategy from the traditional trading background of most of IPC’s sales staff.
its offering to support more asset classes, Omahen confirmed. SunGard already supports some of the key asset classes and contract types, such as non-deliverable forwards, and it will branch out to others, he said. “OTC equity swaps is one asset class we will work on and will be coming soon,” Omahen noted. POST-TRADE
Local matching standard years away, analyst says
The industry may be waiting years before a standard for local trade matching is decided on, according to Aite Group Analyst Virginie O’Shea. The issue has been raised in the
wake of a move by Omgeo to switch off the local matching capability in its Oasys Global platform in favor of central allocation and acceptance, O’Shea said in an interview. “Not everyone wants to match centrally, especially not [firms] who invested a lot in local matching,” she added. But O’Shea noted, as market participants look to adopt a new standard, there is a demarcation line between firms with allegiances to FIX and SWIFT. The divide crosses borders, with the buyside, which is mostly US-based, leaning towards FIX and brokers and vendors in Europe leaning towards SWIFT, according to O’Shea. The impasse could be avoided if a standard allowing multiple messages is adopted. That model would create a bridge between FIX and SWIFT,
O’Shea said, cautioning it wouldn’t be a permanent solution. “There will be a winner in the end, but it won’t be possibly until [2015],” O’Shea said. O’Shea contributed to a series of three reports from Aite on the topic that looked at the entire process as well as the buyside and sellside perspectives on the issue. TECHNOLOGY
Portware rolling out Alpha Vision in Europe
Portware is quietly bringing its Alpha Vision platform to Europe, said Alfred Eskandar, CEO, who spoke to WSL. The New York-based vendor of trading technology is talking to a
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25/03/2013 15:45