Awards: Fenics

The electronification of FX options has been a slow-moving process, certainly much slower than in spot markets. Regulatory initiatives have pushed this process indirectly by imposing best execution requirements on market participants, and reducing the ability of large, global banks to warehouse and provide liquidity in these instruments.

When Fenics Trading Solutions (TS) launched in the fourth quarter of 2016, smaller, more regional banks were ready to adopt a system that would allow them to manage liquidity market-making and distribute prices in a venue-agnostic way.

“The key thing is that we have enabled price distribution both internally and externally, and now it’s live on all the major FX options venues – live with customers making prices in every continent,” says John Crisp, director of products and product strategy at Fenics.

TS is a platform-agnostic system supporting multiple APIs, which enables clients to access numerous front-ends and venues, as well as switching between them. It also supports every aspect of the FX derivatives trading workflow, while satisfying transparency and regulatory compliance needs.

“What [Fenics] TS does is enable electronification across the business, and therefore that technology then becomes essential to the growth of that business,” adds Crisp.

Fenics was voted the winner of the Best e-FX Software Provider category at the 2018 FX Week e-FX Awards.

The key thing is that we have enabled price distribution both internally and externally, and now it’s live on all the major FX options venues

John Crisp, Fenics

“The path the business set out on 18 months ago, in terms of our development strategy, has been embraced by the market participants – both new and existing clients. We’ve got Fenics TS 2.0 coming out later this year, which will accelerate the business momentum we have already achieved,” says Richard Brunt, chief executive officer of Fenics.

The company acquired Kalahari, a provider of real-time price-discovery and analytics solutions in 2017. The two companies are also in the process of rebranding under a joint moniker.

“We made a strategic acquisition late last year, and naturally there has been an initial focus of synergy between the software that we bought and Fenics’ technology. That’s going to allow us to take a quantum leap in both of those products,” says Crisp.

The plan is now to broaden the Fenics TS range to include more esoteric products and extend the firm’s offering in the automated workflow space. And investment in the business continues.

“As Fenics TS drives growth across the group, we’ll continue to grow organically, as we have done this year and for the past few years. At the strategic level I’m looking to accelerate that with further investments,” Crisp concludes.

VIEW THE LIST OF WINNERS