Reuters enters post-trade market

The service is undergoing testing with a major inter-dealer broker, and is in the final stages of development. The service will be a centralised system to allow banks and brokers to out-source their post-trade plumbing issues with clients.

Andrew Cunningham, chief architect for next-generation transactions at Reuters, said: "We are putting significant investment into it. Reuters' global footprint will enable us to build on our strong presence in the market."

Forex is the first asset class to be launched, with messaging of spot transactions currently being delivered. Foreign exchange options and other asset classes – fixed income and equities – will be running by year-end, said Cunningham. He added that it will be targeted at banks, portals and brokers looking to make savings on infrastructure.

The charging structure has yet to be decided, but one option is to levy fees on a per-trade basis on both ends of the trade.

John Jessop, director at technology vendor Logicscope, said banks would be reluctant to adopt this model. "We've always found banks resistant to this on the grounds that it's a kind of tax, and the more you use the system the more you pay."

However, he said Reuters' move is sensible. "We welcome another player in the market because it needs post-trade messaging and other STP products to make the whole system efficient, not just from front office to back, but from broker to bank and from bank to client."

Tom Glocer, chief executive of Reuters, alluded to the service following the announcement of the company's half-yearly results last week.