Multi-asset OMS/EMS trading technology provider Quod Financial has secured four new clients – CMC Markets in London, Kepler Chevreux in Paris, SKB Bank (Sinara) in Russia and an undisclosed major bank in Saudi Arabia – to satisfy a range of functional requirements around automated trading, across multiple asset classes.
CMC Markets Connect is leveraging Quod’s shared memory communication for low-latency trading, inflight data manipulation and AI/ML-powered decision making. The technical integration between Quod’s quoting servers and CMC’s trading engine will enable CMC to optimise its SpotFX price feed management and power the firm’s ability to act as a liquidity maker, driving down price latency and delivering a single low-latency feed for clients.
Kepler Chevreux is rolling out Quod Financial’s Adaptive Smart Order Router (ASOR) as part of the firm’s transformative plan to implement the next generation of electronic trading platforms. The ASOR will expand Kepler’s ability to seek liquidity across lit markets, systematic internalisers and dark venues across European equities markets. The technology also provides a fully automated execution mechanism using different workflows, including low-touch, direct access, algo trading and retail.
SKB Bank (Sinara), one of Russia’s largest regional banks, will be using Quod Financial’s automated data-driven trading and enhanced real-time analytics as an integrated component within Refinitiv’s trading Order Management system (OMS) solution, which the firm is rolling out for its newly launched multi-asset brokerage platform, covering equities, derivatives, and Foreign Exchange (FX).
Finally, the largest provider of financial services in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), is implementing Quod for multi-asset trading, for both institutional and retail customers.
“We’re seeing an exodus away from incumbent, single-asset OMS and EMS systems,” says Medan Gabbay, Chief Revenue Officer at Quod Financial. “Firms increasingly recognise that multi-asset trading is the future. In Russia, for example, it’s a key requirement to be able to hedge FX automatically from equities trading.”
The company is expanding rapidly to satisfy the growing demand for multi-asset solutions and greater automation across the buy side and sell side. “We’ve effectively doubled our rate of new client acquisition since last year, and grown our organisation by approximately 40%,” he says.
Much of the demand stems from banks having to compete with technologically-savvy non-bank market makers, says Gabbay. “I see it as the rise of the non-banks, showing they can compete with the banks by being nimble, having the freedom to take on risk and having a cross-asset mentality. That experience, combined with the need for cost saving, has woken the banks up a little bit. Senior management are looking to consolidate, and invest in this idea of multi asset trading. And at the end of the day, it’s the overall P&L that really matters.”
Going forward, the strategic direction for the company is to continue to invest in its cross-asset capabilities, says Gabbay. “Our next technology investment for 2022 is to build out our fixed income offering, because we need all four pillars: equities, derivatives, FX and fixed income. We’ll also be expanding our cross-asset execution algos, as well as cross-asset margining, which is required for the retail market.”
