About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

OTCX-SimCorp Partnership Takes On MiFID II Compliance

Subscribe to our newsletter

OTC derivatives multi-dealer platform OTCX’s recently announced partnership with investment management solutions provider SimCorp makes the OTCX Request For Quote (RFQ) platform more widely available – and capitalises on the platform’s value for MiFID II compliance, according to Nicolas Koechlin, CEO of OTCX.

“We started the OTCX concept a little before MiFID II kicked in,” he says. “It kept frustrating me to see how manual the processes were for many of the fund managers and transactions I was working with. Internal systems were getting quite sophisticated, so we could generate digital structured messages, but it had to be communicated on chat or voice. I wanted to see if we could bring the platform process to a wider range of instruments, so we could capture all these different styles and bring them into a structured format.”

SimCorp has integrated the OTCX RFQ platform into its Order Manager, facilitating trade reconstruction, best execution policy compliance and application of required timestamps. MiFID II adds new rules governing OTC derivatives transactions, and the OTCX RFQ platform helps support compliance with those rules.

“MiFID II forces people to be more transparent about their process and be able to evidence that on demand,” says Koechlin.

Australian fund manager Merlon Capital Partners, a SimCorp client, tested the OTCX platform, and under the new partnership, Merlon can directly source and trade equity derivatives. OTCX, according to Koechlin, plans to build on the reach it is gaining through SimCorp by pursuing new user firms directly, including more asset management firms in Australia and the Asia-Pacific region.

OTCX also offers trading of interest-rate swaps and inflation swaps, and is planning to roll out capability for cross-currency swaps. The platform is testing its services with ten Tier 1 firms in London and a global firm’s US arm, Koechlin adds.

“We developed what we think is the first dealer-to-client cross-currency swap RFQ model,” he says. “With SimCorp, we’re the only ones to offer end-to-end integration around instruments like cross-currency swaps.”

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Upcoming Webinar: Hearing from the Experts: AI Governance Best Practices

9 September 2025 10:00am ET | 3:00pm London | 4:00pm CET Duration: 50 Minutes The rapid spread of artificial intelligence in the financial industry presents data teams with novel challenges. AI’s ability to harvest and utilize vast amounts of data has raised concerns about the privacy and security of sensitive proprietary data and the ethical...

BLOG

A (Free) Practical AI Handbook for Capital Markets Professionals

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has swiftly transitioned from a promising concept into an operational reality across the capital markets. Senior executives, compliance leaders, and technology specialists are already well-acquainted with the potential of AI to streamline processes, enhance decision-making, and open new competitive opportunities. Yet, the current challenge isn’t about grasping AI’s transformative potential – it’s...

EVENT

AI in Capital Markets Summit New York

The AI in Capital Markets Summit will explore current and emerging trends in AI, the potential of Generative AI and LLMs and how AI can be applied for efficiencies and business value across a number of use cases, in the front and back office of financial institutions. The agenda will explore the risks and challenges of adopting AI and the foundational technologies and data management capabilities that underpin successful deployment.

GUIDE

AI in Capital Markets: Practical Insight for a Transforming Industry – Free Handbook

AI is no longer on the horizon – it’s embedded in the infrastructure of modern capital markets. But separating real impact from inflated promises requires a grounded, practical understanding. The AI in Capital Markets Handbook 2025 provides exactly that. Designed for data-driven professionals across the trade life-cycle, compliance, infrastructure, and strategy, this handbook goes beyond...