ATMonitor Talks with IPC’s Ganesh Iyer

What impact will the new regulatory requirements have on firms trading OTC derivatives and are they well prepared?

Even though it has been nearly five years since the G20 first proposed initiatives to mitigate systemic risk, reduce operational inefficiencies and promote transparency in the global OTC derivatives market, practitioners believe the industry is still evolving and remains unprepared. The impact of the Dodd-Frank Act and European Markets Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) is being felt by market participants in the US and Europe respectively, particularly the mandate of executing all derivatives subject to a clearing obligation on a regulated market, swap execution facility or organised trading facility.

The four key proposals of global regulators include:

  • Increased standardisation of products
  • A move to central clearing
  • Promoting trading on electronic platforms
  • Reporting to trade repositories.

Standardisation of products results in greater liquidity, improved market transparency, more reliable pricing data and better risk management. Standardisation of products is also conducive to electronic trading. However, trading in the European OTC derivatives market will follow a hybrid model with voice RFQs remaining strong for the foreseeable future. The requirements around central clearing, trading and reporting also aim to reduce risk, promote transparency and enhance market surveillance. These moves are important considering that credit default swaps were one of the major causes of the global financial crisis.

What we have done at IPC is to create a community of market participants – buy-side firms, sell-side firms, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, market data providers and software vendors – that consume trade lifecycle applications, market data and other services from other providers in the community. And we have leveraged this community to create a swap ecosystem which includes swap dealers, major swap participants and swap execution facilities (organised trading facilities in Europe). Our ecosystem has become a magnet for market participants in the OTC derivatives asset class.

What role is London playing in the European financial services industry in terms of addressing key regulatory challenges?

We are seeing increased technology, communications and software investments in London. As it is a historical financial centre and because it is in a central time zone, equidistant between North America and the Asia-Pacific region, people look to London as the global hub of trading. It is the main centre to connect to other market participants in the EMEA region given the attractive business environment, skilled personnel, infrastructure, government responsiveness and abundant supply of professional services here. We see a lot of demand to connect to other markets in Europe – not just to the developed markets like France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Scandinavian countries but also emerging markets in Eastern Europe, Africa and the Middle East.

IPC has substantial operations in London as it is the primary market in Europe and a major global financial centre. IPC operates a dark fibre network in London – we have a lot of different data centres in the London metropolitan area, from Slough in the west through the Docklands and out to Basildon. We operate a robust and secure infrastructure in London for our community of market participants – the buy-side, sell-side, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, independent software vendors and market data providers. We’re also continuing to make a lot of investments in the City and in the greater European trading community.

Fading Offers and Higher Prices: Front Running, or Something Else?

Rosenblatt Securities recently published a critical review of “Flash Boys,” the Michael Lewis book that has sparked explosive and contentious debates on high-frequency trading. In a blog titled “Trading Talk,” Justin Schack, managing director at Rosenblatt, offers insights into the transformation and evolution of the US equity market structure since the late 1990s. He contends that the Order Protection Rule, rather than HFT front-running, explains why the traders in “Flash Boys” that attempted to buy large blocks of stock saw offers fade and prices move higher when they placed an order:

The Order Protection Rule, passed in 2007, aims to ensure that both institutional and retail investors get the best possible price for a given trade by comparing quotes on multiple exchanges. The rule caused market markers to quote their best prices on all exchanges even though they did not want to actually sell the total amount of shares offered across all the exchanges. Once an order was filled in one exchange, market makers canceled orders at that offer price on other exchanges. In this scenario there is no HFT front-running; but just like HFT front-running, traders will witness offers fade and prices increase.

The review also argues that decimalization of the US equity markets in 2001 caused tighter spreads between the bid and ask prices of a stock (because the minimum price movement went down to $0.01 from 1/16 of a dollar). HFT firms entered the picture and started making money on penny spreads by trading smaller sizes very frequently. The argument in “Trading Talk” is that not many institutional investors or Wall Street banks would be trying to execute block trades on lit markets in the world of decimalization and algorithmic trading of small quantities of stock since it would show their hands and cause market impact. Investors would certainly see offers fade and prices move higher if they attempted a block trade on lit markets.

IPC’s Rapidly Growing Financial Market Network Empowers Market Participants to Seize Opportunities

Fueled by market participants’ needs to gain a competitive edge while meeting evolving regulatory requirements,  IPC has expanded its Financial Market Network with the addition of new liquidity and execution venues, on-net locations, core network capacity and Points of Presence (PoPs). IPC’s Financial Markets Network facilitates a comprehensive suite of mission-critical managed network solutions designed and operated to address the connectivity needs of capital markets firms across the front-, middle- and back- office.

“With the financial markets constantly evolving, firms are looking at ways to efficiently access new counterparties, geographies, liquidity venues and trading services. The infrastructure and solutions we offer enable participants to quickly connect and engage within the financial ecosystem,” said Joe Pickel, vice president, Network Services Product Management, IPC. “The activity around Swap Execution Facilities (SEFs) and the automation of OTC derivatives trading is one such example where we are seeing new regulations driving dozens of liquidity venues, buy-side firms, swap dealers, and others engaged in the trade lifecycle onto IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet.”

SEFs including TeraExchange, as well as a number of IDBs, are available through IPC’s Connexus.

“As the OTC derivatives markets continue to evolve, it’s important for our customers to have reliable and secure connectivity to our platform,” said Leonard T. Nuara, President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of TeraExchange. “Being a part of the IPC community makes access for our customers easier.”

The Connexus Financial Extranet is part of IPC’s Financial Markets Network solution portfolio which includes private extranet, DirectConnect and Managed MPLS VPN data services, as well as Trader and Enhanced IP voice connectivity solutions. IPC’s Financial Markets Network interconnects global financial centers and allows access to more than 5,000 participants in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries.  Built on a state of the art IP/MPLS infrastructure, the highly scalable and secure Connexus Extranet supports a number of industry standard and trading protocols.

“Global financial reform is impacting not only the trading desk, but also the technology that underpins the market,” said Kevin McPartland, Head of Market Structure Research, Greenwich Associates. “These regulatory initiatives are driving increased investment in technology across the board, including improved and expanded networking capabilities to ensure much needed access to emerging liquidity pools and new sources of market data.”

About IPC:

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions, trading communications infrastructure management and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 700 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

ICAP Selects IPC as Preferred Supplier of Trader Voice Connectivity Globally

IPC, a leading provider of trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms, today announced that ICAP, Plc., a leading markets operator and provider of post trade risk mitigation and information services, has selected several of IPC’s Financial Markets Network services for its global connectivity needs, including Trader Voice, the Connexus Financial Extranet and the Direct Connect data service.

Leveraging IPC’s services, ICAP will have access to rapid connectivity and trading parties anywhere in the world with approximately 5,000 financial institutions instantly reachable. In addition, the company will enjoy comprehensive Business Continuity Planning/Disaster Recovery capabilities, enabling enterprise-wide survivability, mobility and flexibility.

IPC will become ICAP’s preferred global supplier of Trader Voice Connectivity, further building on a strategic partnership which also encompasses Trading Systems and Data Services. ICAP and IPC will work together to manage the seamless migration of all of ICAP’s Trader Voice circuit inventory on to IPC’s fully resilient Trader Voice Connectivity Platform.

“ICAP chose to partner with IPC because it is an industry leader providing reach, scale and geographic coverage, with the levels of network resiliency and diversity we require,” said Alan Pittard, ICAP Vendor Management. “By using IPC’s Financial Markets Network services, we gain professionally managed connectivity that enables us to provide our international clients with highly sophisticated access to financial markets across six continents.”

 

“IPC is committed to providing industry leading, value-added network solutions for traders in a reliable and secure environment,” said Barry Purkis, senior vice president, IPC. “By strengthening our strategic partnership with ICAP, not only can we enable them to connect globally with fast and efficient access, but we have created a solid foundation that underpins all future service offerings and developments encompassing on-demand cloud based solutions, electronic trading and applications.”

The IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio includes the Connexus Financial Extranet and Direct Connect data services, as well as Trader and Enhanced Voice connectivity services. IPC’s Financial Markets Network interconnects global financial centers and allows access to approximately 5,000 market participant locations in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions, trading communications infrastructure management and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 700 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

About ICAP

ICAP is a leading markets operator and provider of post trade risk mitigation and information services.  Group companies provide services that match buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, FX, emerging markets and equity derivatives through voice and electronic networks.  Through our post trade risk and information services we help our customers manage and mitigate risks in their portfolios.

Global Banking & Finance Review – Mobile Voice Recording

The relatively new requirements to record mobile phone conversations relating to trading transactions are giving the industry a lot to think about. The focus on compliance is stronger than ever with record fines and compliance officers having personal liability if oversight is not in place to monitor for trading transgression.

Meeting the challenge is no simple, straightforward task. Regulation requires full trade reconstructions across all channels both voice and data, to establish the facts relative to a given trade.

The first step is to record all media (instant messages, texts, email and voice), store and archive – applying specific rules for retention. The second step is to analyse all of the data and align conversation threads to specific deals. And the third is to collate and present, on request, all relevant data to regulating bodies within a rapid time frame.

Trading institutions aim for compliance in a transparent, cost effective and timely manner.

Transparency

There are differences in regulatory demands across territories, but all broadly aim for greater transparency in the way trades originate and are executed. In the UK, the Financial Conduct Authority has extended the requirements of the European Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFiD) for fixed line voice recording to include all electronic communications to and from mobile devices concerned with receiving and executing client orders or transactions. This impacts traders, front and back office advisors, settlement and private banking staff, and recordings must be retained for six months.

In the US, the Dodd Frank Act of 2013 requires that, upon demand, voice and data – emails, instant messages, text messages and trade processing – relative to a specific identified trade be made available and presented. Information must be in a suitable format so that it can be reviewed to confirm that traders took appropriate action to achieve the best price at the appropriate time.

In the future, the impact of the regulators worldwide is expected to extend even further, creating a far reaching and complex regulatory reform framework with requirements impacting almost all traded entities in financial services.

Differences aside, the regulations have been laid out. And with limited benchmark cases, the interpretation of the rules can be somewhat subjective. Until companies are asked to demonstrate that they are compliant with the regulations, they cannot be certain that any particular solution used will suffice to meet the regulatory requirements. Fearing the risk involved, some have chosen to implement a policy of disallowing mobile phone use for trades altogether, but as this restricts productivity it is an unsatisfactory solution. Plus it is unlikely regulators would be satisfied that having such a policy in place equates to compliance should mobile trading still go on regardless.

Systems put in place need to be dynamic and flexible enough to change to implement new regulatory rules or adjust as required for different geographies, roles and asset types.

Cost Effective

The intent is to avoid over-compliance – which would be prohibitively expensive in infrastructure and resource – and under-compliance – which could be even more costly in fines and reputation should a solution or an approach fall foul of regulatory demands.

Most trading institutions have basic recording facilities for traders’ desk phones, and have for some time. To meet requirements for a complete series of communications that define an entire scenario – who was implicated and why – though, requires increased functionality. Making the right solution choice is not an easy task. A phased approach is likely to be the most cost-effective, as is the adoption of an agile solution that can flex to adapt to new rules over time. Companies need to understand and weigh up costs for recording, storage, analysis and presentation of the information.

Working with a vendor with experience and understanding of the business is a must. To analyse unstructured data, comprising voice and text, is difficult. The temptation is to convert voice to text. However, doing so loses the tone and pitch of the interactions and voice-to-text conversion is difficult when recordings have been made in a noisy environment.

The foundation for tools-based analysis today is based on:

  • Identifying relevant parties – authentication by number, SIM, log-on, biometrics
  • Timeline: interweaving communications by time
  • Word spotting: basic alignment of trade flow.

Using such tools helps reduce the need for manual intervention. However, substantial human resource is still required. Technology that can completely analyse meaning, nuances, subtleties and implied meanings in communications is in a formative stage and certainly cannot be relied upon 100 per cent of the time. Meanwhile understanding the significance of ‘non activity,’ such as the timing of calls, is difficult to automate.

‘Bring your own device’ (BYOD) can of course cause further problems. If the deployed auditable solution is application-based, compliance could be circumvented by the use of alternative devices that don’t have the application or OTT communications.

Once all data communications are aligned and key transaction trade flow is available, institutions are paying considerable amounts for the lawyers’ interpretation.

Timely

The demand for transparency is a clear intent from the regulators and the industry needs to be prepared. Products exist to help IT departments grappling to meet the requirements in a timely manner.

Technology solutions providers will need to continue to develop and adapt their products to meet the challenge of communications compliance. The systems provided will need to be rules orientated to adapt to change, and regional directives.

The provision of voice communication capabilities is fast becoming a commodity. It is the management of voice interactions that is critical going forward – software solutions that make the data of communications, including recorded conversations, useful and that automates the collection, organisation and analysis of the data so that connections and linkages can be made. Agility and flexibility are critical here, as is delivery by experienced teams who understand the needs and drivers of the financial trading markets.

 

IPC

IPC provides trading communications solutions to the global financial services community. IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services, enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions and day-to-day system management and monitoring services.

IPC’s Trading Platform Named Best Sell-Side Trading Communication System In Waters Sell-Side Technology Awards

IPC, a leading provider of trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms, received the “Best Sell-Side Trading Communications Systems” award in Sell-Side Technology’s second annual Sell-Side Technology Awards program.  The selection was made by a panel comprised of industry experts and Waters journalists.

This award recognizes IPC for its revolutionary trading communications technology. IPC accounts for more than 118,000 of the world’s trading turret positions establishing the Company as the turret market segment leader with over 50% share. Unigy, IPC’s open, single services-oriented architecture (SOA)-based unified trading communications and applications platform, speeds collaboration between traders and the trade support teams across middle and back offices with unprecedented flexibility, scalability and adaptability. Unigy’s interoperability allows it to work with existing systems, IQ/MAX turrets, PBX phone systems and voice recording equipment to help trading firms transform their workflow. Now live at more than 500 customer sites globally, including installations at more than 50% of the Top 25 banks*, Unigy helps trading firms of every size reduce complexity, ensure compliance and control operating costs.

“We are honored to be selected as the Best-Sell Side Trading Communications System in the Sell-Side Technology Awards,” said Ranjan Singh, Vice President, Product Management, Trading Communications, IPC.  “Our primary goal is to provide our customers with the sophisticated technology and expertise that grants them a competitive advantage in every stage of the trading lifecycle. Our accomplishment in winning this award supports our viewpoint that it is the unification of technology and knowledge that makes the difference for our customers.”

IPC also offers a sophisticated suite of trading communications tools that includes the award-winning IQ/MAX turret, whose intuitive design and advanced Voice-over-IP technology delivers maximum clarity, speed, control and power to a trader’s fingertips, IQ/MAX Edge, a Unigy-powered turret designed specifically for small- to medium-sized trading firms, IQ/MAX Omni, an innovative PC-based soft-turret that offers traders the ability to trade from anywhere and IPC’s revolutionary Blue Wave application development platform that enables Unigy customers and third party Application Service Providers (ASPs) to create their own business-specific applications.

The winners of the Sell-Side Technology Awards were announced during an awards ceremony in New York on April 15.

*The Top 25 banks ranking is generated by The Banker Database, and published in The Banker July edition.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified

communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 630 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

Aliom Trading Selects IPC to Boost Trading Performance

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community, a leading provider of voice and electronic trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, announced that Aliom Trading, a trading firm with a wealth of knowledge and extensive experience in Proprietary Trading has switched their Internet based connectivity model and signed on to IPC’s Managed Virtual Private Network (VPN) system.

Aliom Trading, founded in 2006 is a well-capitalized, and privately owned Proprietary Trading company, which has rapidly grown to become one of Australia’s leader in the field. Its expanding trading community is distributed both across Australia and overseas. Aliom Trading also has a world class teaching facility at its HQ in Sydney, where they are developing the next generation of Proprietary Traders.  By making use of IPC’s Managed Virtual Private Network (VPN) system, Aliom Trading has switched from an Internet based connectivity to a fully managed and integrated solution for network connectivity that will boost their trading performance. The Managed VPN system has also enabled Aliom to run VoIP in between their offices, which has helped in reducing any inter-office communication costs and streamlining infrastructure. Through the aid of IPC’s Managed VPN systems, Aliom is also equipped to create a larger private network, including exchanges such as SGX, OSE, HKFE for extended trading opportunities.

“The use of the Managed VPN services by IPC has boosted our productivity and communications internally, and has improved our trading and risk management capabilities. The new infrastructure is fundamental to our growth plans, providing a stable and scalable platform as we continue to develop new traders through our Aliom Trading Academy program,” said Sam Liuzzo, General Manager of Aliom Trading.

 

David Dodd, Senior Vice President and Managing Director of IPC Systems, Inc. mentioned that “IPC is excited to announce the first Managed VPN system being used by Aliom Trading. IPC’s Managed Virtual Private Network supports Aliom’s business by expanding their global reach and brings efficiencies in their intra office infrastructure.”

Managed Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a flexible and customizable service that is built on IPC’s global and resilient MPLS backbone.  This wide area network service enables mission-critical enterprise connectivity for voice, video and data applications. The service provides the ability to prioritize network traffic and bandwidth through three distinct Classes of Service (Premium, Enhanced and Basic) with bursting options. And with the state-of- the-art monitoring tools, IPC proactively monitors the performance (jitter, latency, packet loss) and manages capacity and resolves faults.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified communications / application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 630 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, visit www.ipc.com.

About Aliom Trading

Aliom Trading is a company run by Traders, for Traders.

Our Traders live and breathe the markets.  With global access 24 hours a day across multiple platforms our Traders have the freedom to trade any market, anytime, anywhere.  This flexible approach means we have rapidly grown to become one of Australia’s leading Proprietary Trading companies.

Founded in 2006, Aliom Trading is a privately owned Proprietary Trading company.  Aliom’s owners bring a wealth of knowledge and extensive experience in Proprietary Trading and the Financial Services industry and actively manage a growing and diverse team of market professionals.

The Aliom Trading Academy was established to build upon our existing successful Proprietary Trader base.  Our highly experienced Trainer Mentors have an in-depth and diverse knowledge and understanding of global financial markets.  They will select, teach, assess, and nurture future successful Proprietary Traders for Aliom Trading.

Survey Finds Industry Lagging Behind Market Regulation Deadlines as SEF Trading Begins to Take Off

With the Dodd-Frank rule for certain swaps to be mandatorily traded on Swap Execution Facilities (SEFs) becoming effective, a new survey finds that the industry remains  underprepared to meet the requirements of  these new regulations, while individual firms push ahead to make themselves ready. This survey, released today and conducted by IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of voice and electronic trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, highlights the state of the industry’s preparedness for this new SEF model and potential impact on the OTC derivatives markets.

The survey was conducted during FIA Chicago, from November 5-7, 2013, and generated responses from hedge funds, investment banks, broker/dealers, exchanges and other financial institutions. Respondents came from the front, middle, and back office and included people involved in both the business and technology sides of trading operations. Key findings include:

Struggling to Meet Regulatory Preparedness

  • 60 percent of survey respondents said the industry was behind on meeting the deadlines on SEF trading.
  • 39 percent of survey respondents said their firms were behind on meeting the deadlines on SEF trading.

SEF Impact

  • 77 percent of survey respondents believe that the launch of SEFs will have an impact on trading volumes and sizes.
  • 61 percent of survey respondents expect to see a shift to the futures market due to the regulations.

Potential OTC Derivatives Market Growth

  • 27 percent of survey respondents expect the importance and value of the OTC Derivatives market to grow.
  • 42 percent of survey respondents plan to start OTC derivative trading during 2014.

SEF Connectivity

  • Nearly all respondents planned or have already connected to multiple SEFs.
  • SEFs that the largest percentage of respondents said that theyplan to connect to are  CMEGroup, TeraExchange, Bloomberg, and Eurex.

“Over the last year, we have seen a lot of activity from financial firms that have been looking for additional or new network connectivity to many of the already registered SEFs or OTFs through Connexus, our Financial extranet,” said Ganesh Iyer, Director, Product Marketing, Financial Market Network at IPC. “While the survey results suggest that the industry is underprepared for mandated SEF trading, we see this issue as more of a fear of uncertainty around industry-wide implementation and regulatory governance. Individual firms, SEFs and their equivalent platforms are already planning connectivity, systems and processes to be ready to meet the new trading requirements.”

The full survey report, titled “Market View 2014: OTC Derivatives Regulations and Swap Execution Facilities,” can be downloaded from IPC’s website.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified

communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 630 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

Vivienne Court Selects IPC to Provide Global Network Access in Australia

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community, announced that Vivienne Court, a financial trading firm, based in Potts Point, has selected IPC’s Financial Markets Network offerings to cover their voice and electronic trading network connectivity requirements. Vivienne Court has a unique business model based upon social principles and a shareholder model which removes economically motivated equity holders and replaces them with a charitable entity.

IPC provides operationally efficient global network connectivity solution with a sole focus on financial institutions. The use of IP Trader Voice Lines, Direct Connect network connectivity and Connexus, IPC’s global Extranet, helps Vivienne Court to leverage integrated infrastructure to connect to multiple venues and counterparties.

Vivienne Court operates in a very niche part of the financial world with its core business in market making. They provide liquidity to the market by taking long and short positions, offsetting risk where there are buy and sell imbalances in the markets.

“We are delighted to join IPC in partnership to provide global connectivity for our trading ecosystem with Trader Voice Lines and Connexus, said Rob Keldoulis, CEO of Vivienne Court in announcing their partnership. We are very mindful of who we choose to partner with and our experience with IPC to date in terms of their product offering as well as their service levels and working ethos has been very pleasing.”

David Dodd, Senior Vice President of IPC Systems, Inc., mentioned that “Given Vivienne Court’s unique business strategy, IPC is excited to work with Vivienne Court to carry their business forward and help them achieve their business goals.”

Connexus is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio which also includes private extranet and Direct Connect data services, as well as Trader Enhanced voice connectivity services. IPC’s Financial Markets Network interconnects global financial centers and allows access to more than 4,000 market participant locations in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries. Built on an IP/MPLS backbone, the highly scalable and secure Connexus supports a number of industry standard and trading protocols.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include a unified communications / application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data network connectivity solutions and dedicated service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a network of 5,000 customer sites over 630 cities and an installed base of approximately 118,000 trading positions deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 900 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, visit www.ipc.com.

Connectivity in a Box Joins IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of mission critical voice and electronic communication solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, today announced that Connectivity In A Box (CIB), a leading edge provider of FIX messaging connectivity solutions, has joined IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet Community.

FIX messaging services have traditionally been a captive operation provided by brokerage firms, and users of these services have often been limited by the broker’s connectivity services, as well as by the high costs associated with these services. By making CIB’s normalized FIX messaging platform available to all financial market participants on IPC’s cloud-based Connexus Service, users will be able to seamlessly communicate with their trading counterparties across the globe quickly and cost-efficiently. Currently CIB is deploying its FIX messaging solution to North American customers and will extend connectivity to Europe and Asia later this year.

“We are delighted to be part of IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet Community. Having CIB as a part of IPC’s extranet  enables us to reach a large financial trading community,  allowing us to meet the goal of making FIX messaging solutions more of a standard utility for trading,” said Eric Greenspan, founder, CIB.  “IPC offers our users a reliable, cost-effective and secure way to communicate with their counterparties around the global.”

 

“CIB is a firm headed by pioneers who have brought a number of large Wall Street entities to the forefront of banking connectivity technology. That heritage of innovation lives on in CIB’s cutting-edge FIX based messaging solutions, and we are pleased to have CIB join the Connexus Community,” Joe Pickel, vice president, Network Services Product Management, IPC, said.

The Connexus Financial Extranet is part of IPC’s Financial Markets Network solution portfolio which includes private extranet, DirectConnect and Managed MPLS VPN data services, as well as Trader and Enhanced IP voice connectivity solutions. IPC’s Financial Markets Network interconnects global financial centers and allows access to more than 5,000 ecosystem participants in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries.  Built on a state of the art IP/MPLS infrastructure, the highly scalable and secure Connexus Extranet supports a number of industry standard and trading protocols.

About IPC

IPC is a leading global provider of specialized communications solutions for the global financial trading community. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and over 40 years of expertise, IPC provides customers with integrated solutions that support traders and participants across the entire trade lifecycle including sell-side and buy-side financial institutions, inter- dealer brokers, liquidity venues, clearing and settlement firms, independent software vendors, corporate finance departments, financial information exchange providers and market data providers. IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, managed voice and data connectivity solutions and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 60 countries – including a financial extranet of 5,000 on-net locations in over 700 cities and more than 115,000 turrets deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey, IPC has approximately 1,000 employees located throughout the Americas and the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions. For more information, visit www.ipc.com.

About Connectivity in a Box

CIB was formed in early 2012 by a team of expert technologists responsible for bringing several large Wall Street entities to the leading edge of Banking Client Connectivity Technology. Each member of our core team has more than 15 years of hands-on experience in the implementation and operation of the FIX messaging protocol for client connectivity. Our core competencies are extensive and span all facets of development, implementation and operation of FIX based client connectivity across all asset classes. The CIB team is now focusing our expertise on driving the next evolution in our industry. We have created a fully hosted and fully managed client adoption solution that provides all the features, flexibility and stability of a captive operation at a substantially lower cost. The needs of our clients are our top priority and we will provide the features and support necessary to outsource your client adoption needs to CIB.