Société de Bourse Gilbert Dupont is building on its relationship with SunGard and its use of the company’s Valdi Market Access software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution to extend its reach to Turquoise, the London Stock Exchange’s pan-European multilateral trading facility.
Gilbert Dupont, a specialist in small and mid-sized company research and a wholly-owned subsidiary of Groupe Crédit du Nord, part of financial group Société Générale, has been a SunGard customer for over 20 years, using the company’s market connectivity to access exchanges, as well as its front and middle-office solutions.
It already uses the SunGard Valdi Market Access solution to access the Euronext pan-European equities trading platform as well as BATS Chi-X Europe markets. Describing the firms addition of Turquoise, François de Lard, secretary general at Gilbert Dupont, says: “Turquoise has become a ‘must have’ trading platform, offering deep liquidity on a number of large French stocks. It often reaches close to 10% of trading volumes on lit markets, making it mandatory for Gilbert Dupont to include it in our best execution policy.”
Following the addition of Turquoise, Gilbert Dupont plans to use the SunGard platform to access Equiduct, a pan-European trading platform operated by Börse Berlin and including a retail best execution service. De Lard comments: “We are also watching closely the evolution of any liquidity pools offering alternatives to the large domestic markets in order to continue providing optimal execution quality to our clients.”
With respect to the benefits provided to the firm by the SunGard platform, De Lard explains: “Stability is first and foremost. SunGard also provides Gilbert Dupont a proven platform, which enables us to implement both trading solutions and post-trade process and workflow integration in a consistent environment. Together with SaaS outsourcing, this gives us both the agility and the reactivity we need to adapt our services offering quickly and efficiently.”
Reflecting user requirements, Philippe Carré, global head of connectivity in SunGard’s capital markets business, says: “Delivering smart access to pan-European liquidity is an essential part of SunGard’s strategy to offer enhanced value to capital markets’ players as they look to improve execution quality across their order flow. Key to this is the ability to add new venues quickly and easily, in a cost-controlled environment.”
SunGard Valdi Market Access offers managed access to more than 110 trading venues worldwide and is used by over 100 clients, but there is more to come. Carré describes continuing expansion of market access including a focus on markets across central and eastern Europe and South America; extension of asset class coverage beyond equities, futures, options, commodities and structured products to include fixed income; and technology enhancements for the smart order router element of the platform.
He concludes: “We recognise that clients want a consolidated platform with access to multiple asset classes. They may want a single technology platform or to simplify their business models, but the drivers are always cost and regulatory pressure.”
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