Awards: New Change FX

Transaction cost analysis (TCA) was one of the biggest drivers of behaviour over the course of the last year as market participants moved away from a box-ticking approach and towards best execution and data.

In Europe, the second Markets in Financial Instruments Directive and the Packaged Retail Insurance-based Investment Products regulation kicked in at the very start of this year, heralding huge market structure changes and a shift in attitude, says Andrew Woolmer, chief executive and founder of New Change FX.

“There has been a huge change in perception, and a change of attitude towards the topic of transparency and best execution since January this year,” says Woolmer.

One area that clients have started to explore in more depth is the quality and provenance of data that TCA providers use to measure outcomes against. Asset owners’ growing awareness of best execution is also putting issues such as payment methods for TCA services into the spotlight.

“There is an increasingly obvious desire from market participants to ensure TCA tools measure execution against independent data, and that charges for TCA services are paid for in a compliant and transparent way,” Woolmer says.

New Change FX has been voted the winner of the Best FX Transaction Cost Analysis Provider of the Year category at the 2018 FX Week e-FX Awards.

Getting FCA regulatory benchmark status as a live, registered spot rate was a big highlight for us. This is a world first

Andrew Woolmer, New Change FX

The firm provides data and TCA services to its clients, supplying a regulated and independent mid-rate to the market since 2014. The reference rate is not tradeable; calculated from live, aggregated market data, it is published 20 times a second.

“We do not offer any trading services, which means that we are completely independent. We supply data to anyone seeking to understand their FX trading costs. And, for clients that require TCA tools as well as data, we supply Excel-based tools via the Microsoft Office Store. We can also provide bespoke desktop-monitoring tools,” Woolmer says.

First benchmark administrator

In January, the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority approved New Change FX as the first benchmark administrator for live FX spot markets under European Union regulations.

“Getting FCA regulatory benchmark status as a live, registered spot rate was a big highlight for us. This is a world first,” Woolmer says.

The firm also made a raft of technology upgrades to enable the integration of the product into the client’s workflow at any point. It is also preparing to go live with a regulated forwards stream later this year.

“We have seen client interest broaden from banks to asset managers and, lately, corporates – a segment that appears to be waking up to TCA and FX benchmarking now as well,” Woolmer adds.

VIEW THE LIST OF WINNERS