Russian institutional broker Otkritie Capital is working with SunGard to deliver a direct market access (DMA) service that supports automatic real-time currency conversion from the Russian Ruble to the US Dollar, as well as client access to Russian trading venues using Otkritie’s suite of algorithmic trading strategies.
The companies completed work on the service in March and it is now live and automatically available in all SunGard Valdi and FIX-enabled trading applications and to the SunGard Global Network community. SunGard reports that some of its clients are using the service and more are expected to join, trading through Otkritie using both manual and automated services.
Otkritie is the first broker in Russia to offer its algos to both its own and SunGard’s clients as part of an automated trading service run over the SunGard network. But it is not expected to be the last as trading interest in Russia gains traction and the Russian market seeks to mimic western European markets.
The currency element of the DMA service automatically converts Russian ruble denominated transactions executed on Moscow Exchange’s Micex order books into U.S. Dollar execution fills, allowing clients to be currency neutral and avoid the complexities of ruble clearing and holding.
According to Serge Alexandre, sales director, international electronic trading services at Otkritie, “At Otkritie, we have always pioneered new electronic trading services for Russia and we intend to continue delivering innovative products and services to our clients. Partnering with SunGard to offer this conversion and algorithmic offering will enable our clients to leverage Otkritie’s expertise on Russian capital markets and, ultimately, enable them to benefit from and facilitate new trading in Russia.”
SunGard has worked in Russia’s capital markets for over a decade, providing connectivity for firms outside the country to trade on Russian markets and supporting Russian firms trading on Russian and international markets. For many years, Russian stock has been traded on Moscow exchanges and the London Stock Exchange’s international order book, but over the past couple of years, political desire to create a financial centre of excellence in Moscow has led to the merger of the RTS exchange into Micex, efforts to pull trade back from London to Moscow and the elimination of some of the complexities around trading in Russia, including T+0 settlement. The result is a more westernised trading environment aimed at attracting more international investors and including T+2 settlement and support for initiatives such as Otkritie’s new DMA service.
Philippe Carré, global head of connectivity at SunGard Capital Markets, says: “Brokers like Otkritie are tying to give western European clients access to the kinds of technology they are used to trading with in European markets. Many use algos to trade on exchanges, but not many brokers offer algo trading services in Russia. Otkritie is making its approach to the Russian market more standardised, while maintaining its knowledge of how the Russian market works. This allows electronic traders to operate as they do elsewhere and our clients to take advantage of what the broker can offer when trading in Russia.”
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