11 – 17 APRIL 2013
by adding bond liquidity providers (WSL Online, 12/1/10) and it also launched a bond-only multi-lateral trading facility, NYSE BondMatch, in Paris. TRADING FIRMS
Napier Park to overhaul infrastructure with Options
Napier Park Global Capital, a $6.8bn alternative asset manager, plans to outsource its technology infrastructure to Options fresh off its spinout from Citigroup earlier this month. The deal includes Options’ Pipe Core and Pipe Momentum services, which cover business technology infrastructure and fully managed hosting for front, middle and back office, respectively. Callum Runcie, buyside sales director at Options, noted the deal is unique in that it is the first deal for the vendor involving a firm transitioning from in-house infrastructure to an outsourcing provider. He added Options expects to see more deals based on market activity such as new regulation coming into play, like the Volcker Rule, and rising costs. “We’re seeing a lot of interest from established names that said they would never outsource. People who used to do this internally are moving away from the model and now they want to outsource the entire tech stack. It’s a way to have very transparent costs and to cut costs,” he told WSL. He said other concerns center around the business risk inherent in running technology in-house, and these concerns are being raised more often by investors. “We’ve been doing private financial cloud in the US since 2003 and financial firms and their investors are really taking to the model now. There
used to be pressure on funds to do this internally... but if your office is hit by a flood, you’d lose everything so the pressure now is to use data centers as our model does.” Napier Park’s business includes management for hedge funds, private investing and securitization, among other things. TECHNOLOGY
Clearwater to grow institutional business
Clearwater Analytics is looking to grow its institutional business in the UK, and its new office in Edinburgh,
Scotland is intended to facilitate that, according to Tyler Hawes, director of sales. The Boise, Idaho-based trade reporting vendor is currently in discussions with nearly 10 multinational financial firms with presences in Europe as part of plans to significantly expand the number of institutional clients serviced, said Hawes. Institutional firms currently account for about 40% of the company’s revenue. The office will cater to the growing demand the firm is seeing for its trade reporting dashboard from asset managers in both the UK and continental Europe, according to Hawes. Initially a four person support center, it will grow to include a
TRADING FIRMS
GFI plans second new Latam office this year
FI Group has plans to open a second new office in Latin America this year, according to a spokeswoman. The wholesale broker is planning to open a location in Brazil by the end of the year, in a move that follows the planned opening of the firm’s Mexico City office for its affiliate GFI Grupo Mexico. The office in Brazil will service local clients in a fashion similar to the way GFI runs its other offices in the region, the spokeswoman said. Financial institutions interested in trading securities in Latin America from outside of those countries are serviced from the agency-only broker’s New York office, the spokeswoman explained. The local offices service local clients and bring GFI’s trading platforms to local users, she added. The spokeswoman declined to comment on the size of the office in Brazil or what securities would be offered. In Mexico, FX forwards and options, swaps and swaptions will be the first securities offered, she said. Mexican government bonds will be added when demand reaches a critical mass, she noted. The office in Mexico City, which was
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licensed in September, will have less than 10 employees spread across sales and support roles, the spokeswoman said. Additional hiring is possible should the need arise, she noted. The new location allows GFI to bring its technology to Mexican financial institutions, as well as its voice and electronic brokerage services, the spokeswoman added. The addition of the Mexico City office, along with Argentina, Chile, Colombia and Peru, brings the firm’s locations in the region to five.
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08/04/2013 16:52