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IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of electronic trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, today announced Aquis Exchange has joined IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet service. The London-based, pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) is currently awaiting regulatory approval.

Using IPC’s Connexus, buy-side and sell-side firms can quickly and cost efficiently access FIX exchange order flow and market data from across Europe. The MTF plans to offer equities from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and UK.

“We believe in making our venue as accessible as possible to as wide a user group as possible and in that spirit we are very pleased to welcome IPC on board as an authorized extranet supplier,” said Aquis Exchange CEO Alasdair Haynes.

Currently, over 90% of European equity trading in each individual country takes place on two exchanges. The aim of Aquis Exchange is to encourage growth and innovation through a combination of its new pricing model, new order types, and new technology. Additionally, by bringing fresh competition into the marketplace, the trading costs currently maintained by the existing duopoly could be reduced.

“Aquis Exchange has demonstrated the foresight and willingness to experiment that is necessary in true trading innovators by introducing subscription pricing and innovative order types. We’re pleased to enable access to the Aquis Exchange platform in a cost-effective manner by adding Aquis to the Connexus network,” said Bart Bartolozzi senior product marketing manager, IPC. “We look forward to supporting Aquis Exchange launch successfully and grow their business.”

Connexus is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio which also includes private extranet and DirectConnect data services, as well as Trader and 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 more than 58 countries. Connexus leverages a highly scalable, reliable and secure Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) platform which adheres to financial industry standards such as the FIX protocol.

 About Aquis Exchange

*Aquis Exchange, which has applied for regulatory approval as a multilateral trading facility from the UK FCA, was established in October 2012 and has been created to operate a pan-European equities trading exchange and develop exchange software. Aquis Exchange is set to revolutionize the European trading landscape by its introduction of subscription pricing and innovative order types. Currently, over 90% of European equity trading in each individual country takes place on two exchanges. The aim of Aquis Exchange is to bring fresh competition into the marketplace in order to lower the trading costs maintained by the existing duopoly.

For further information, please contact:  Belinda Keheyan at Aquis Exchange on +44 (0)20 3440 7747.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries – including a financial extranet of 4,000 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.

IPC Systems, Inc., a provider of communications solutions to the global financial trading community, today announced that IEX Group has selected IPC’s Financial Extranetservice and Direct Connect data service for its connectivityneeds. Upon the effective date of its Form ATS filing with the Securities andExchange Commission, IEX will be the first registered Alternative Trading System(ATS) that has been funded exclusively by a group of Mutual Funds, Hedge Funds,and Family Offices.

Connexusand Direct Connect will provide IEX with access to keyfinancial market participants including sell-side firms, liquidity venues,market data providers, independent software vendors and data centers, as wellas inter- office connectivity.  In addition, the IPC Financial MarketsNetwork offers IEX enhanced communications capabilities, improvedcustomer service, increased productivity and reduced administrative expenses.

“By deploying IPC’s Connexusmanaged infrastructure platform at our primary and back-up data centers, wegain access to a wide breadth of financial market participants” said RonanRyan, Chief Strategy Officer, IEX Group. “We chose IPC because of ourestablished relationship with them and their expertise in the space. Theirlevel of support and service matches the world-class standards we’resetting for a fairer, higher quality marketplace for allparticipants.”

 

“IPCis committed to providing industry leading, value-added network solutions for thefinancial services community in a reliable and secure environment,” said JoePickel, Vice President, Network Services Product Management, IPC. “Connexus andDirect Connect provide IEX Group with financial extranet and directconnectivity services that offer global reach and superior customer servicealong with fast and efficient access for their subscribers.”

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

About IEX Group

IEX is the first equity tradingvenue owned exclusively by a consortium of buy- side investors, including mutualfunds, hedge funds, and family offices. Dedicated to institutionalizingfairness in the markets, IEX will provide a more balanced marketplace fortraditional investors via simplified market structure designand cutting-edge technology.  IEX offersa fair-access platform to any qualified broker dealer.  Slated to launch in Q4 2013, IEXis driven by a team of cross-industry experts with backgrounds spanning marketvenues, electronic trading, and broker-dealers.

About IPC

IPC offers high- andlow-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial tradingcommunity including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investmentmanagers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on thissector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation,IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voicetrading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity. IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform,award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services includingenhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sunservice and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries –including a financial extranet of 4,000 on-net locations in over 700 cities andmore than 115,000 turrets deployed worldwide. Headquartered in Jersey City, NewJersey, IPC has approximately 1,000 employees located throughout the Americasand the EMEA and Asia-Pacific regions.

It began simply enough in 1973 with a frustrated customer asking a consulting firm to find a way to fix its trading communications equipment so it wouldn’t constantly jam and take its traders out of the market. Rather than try to fix an inadequate and unreliable system, the consulting firm designed an entirely new one and the first trading turret was born.  Forty years later, the company now known as IPC is  a global leader in trading communications solutions with billions of shares traded on its trading communications platform and more than one trillion dollars of trading commerce conducted over its Financial Markets Network every day.

 

“Close collaboration with our customers to solve problems and drive value with innovative technology is quite literally part of our corporate DNA,” Lance Boxer, chief executive officer for IPC, said.  “This drive to provide innovative products and solutions for financial services firms began 40 years ago when it revolutionized how traders did their jobs.  It continues today with comprehensive unified trading communications and connectivity solutions. We also recently launched an Enhanced Services division enabling firms to outsource management of their trading communications infrastructure to IPC.”

 

IPC has a long history of solving customers’ problems.  IPC’s Series 1 turret saw quick global adoption because it dramatically improved the reliability over the existing mechanical solution, which caused lots of trader downtime. That type of downtime for a trader was, as it still is today, a significant problem even in the days when the Dow Jones Industrial Average hovered in the 800s and the average volume on the NYSE was just 25 million shares.

Those same traders also needed private voice lines to communicate with each other.  With that knowledge, IPC evolved along with the market to offer data connectivity services over its Financial Markets Network.  In 2011, IPC introduced Unigy, a unified applications and communications platform designed to scale to meet the needs of trading organizations of any size.  Unigy is quickly becoming an industry standard as it supports an array of turrets as well as mobile devices, allowing firms the flexibility to meet the varying needs of traders and trade support functions while gaining the benefits of a unified communications solution.

As both business and consumer technologies continue to evolve, IT specialists are now also tasked with managing social media and BYOD programs. IPC is at the forefront of helping customers manage modern challenges like these through offerings like the Unigy’s Pulse Mobile app for collaborative communications and new Enhanced Services offerings. IPC is a trusted partner to customers who need an expert in managing a firm’s entire trading communications infrastructure, across the front, back and middle office and in multiple global locations.

“Since our first days, our primary goal has been to provide our customers with top-of-the-line technology solutions that give them a competitive advantage in every stage of the trading lifecycle,” said IPC’s Boxer. “We thank our customers and employees for their loyalty and commitment to IPC over the past 4 decades and we look forward to driving innovation and delivering value for 40 more years and beyond.”

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 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.

As demand for connectivity increases across North America, firms are continually looking for a secure and reliable network for executing trades. Member firms on IPC Systems’ Connexus Financial Extranet service will now provide access to trade on Chi-X Canada and its recently launch CX2, as IPC announced today that Chi-X is the newest market centre to join the Connexus network.

This new connection gives traders an extended reach into global capital markets around the world through Connexus’ high-speed bandwidth and reliability through multiple connections to end-points.  Traders will be able to access liquidity on both Chi-X Canada and CX2 through IPC’s FIX order flow and Market Data products, giving traders more choice through its cost effect solutions.

“We are pleased that IPC traders will have access to both Chi-X Canada and CX2. This is an exciting time for Chi-X, as we set a new record in August capturing 21% market share for TSX-listed securities,” said Dan Kessous, CEO of Chi-X Canada “Through Connexus, IPC traders will be able to take advantage of new trading opportunities and will be able to access new liquidity in the Canadian market.”

 

“Connexus members can now trade on Chi-X Canada and CX2 via the secure network they are already familiar with,” said Joe Pickel, vice president, Network Services Product Management, IPC. “The Chi-X integration into the Connexus network has expanded to IPC customers and they can now trade on Canada’s largest ATS.”

The Connexus Financial Extranet is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio which also includes private extranet and DirectConnect data services, as well as Trader and 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 offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries – including a financial extranet of 4,000 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 Chi-X® Canada

Chi-X Canada is a high-performance alternative trading system (ATS) marketplace for the trading of TSX and TSXV-listed securities from 8:30 am to 5:00 pm ET. The market, which is the largest ATS platforms in Canada, offers strict price/time priority, post-trade attribution, market-agnostic smart routing, advanced order types, trade reporting, risk management tools, historical market data, co-location and cross connectivity services. Like all of the Chi-X Global platforms, Chi-X Canada and CX2 aim to provide cost savings to investors through trading efficiencies, ultimately helping to improve investment performance. ****

About Chi-X® Global

Owned by a consortium of major financial institutions, Chi-X Global operates Chi-X Australia, Chi-X Canada, Chi-X Japan and CX2.  Its Chi-Tech technology services unit provides technology to its business lines and its Chi-FX platform is planned for launch in Brazil in 2013 in a venture with BM&FBOVESPA.****

Less than half of compliance departments fully understand the requirements of new trading regulations according to a survey examining compliance in trading conducted by IPC.   Survey respondents consisted of senior compliance executives (52%), compliance managers (13%) and compliance analysts (35%) at a wide range of financial firms including investment banks, asset management firms, hedge funds and exchanges.

55% of those surveyed said that they did not think their own departments understood new regulation such as the Dodd Frank Act or the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID). A staggering 43% of respondents also admitted they did not feel that their company was completely prepared to meet the requirements of the new regulations.

The IPC survey findings are backed up by research from law firm Davis Polk & Wardwell, which recently reported that on the third year anniversary of Dodd–Frank, 62% of the act’s deadlines had already been missed.

While nearly half of compliance departments say they have created new policies (47%) to improve or increase compliance, only a handful (6%) rate new the introduction of new policies as critical to improving or increasing compliance.  In addition, 23% of respondents said that new technology such as specialised software is critical to improving compliance, only 12% said their organisations had invested in such software.

“These results are worrying,” Bart Bartolozzi, Senior Product Marketing Manager at IPC, said. “They tell us that not only do compliance professionals admit their own departments do not fully understand all that the new regulations require of them, but they are relying on traditional methods to improve compliance – which they themselves admit are not critical to effecting change in their own organisations.”

 

“It is clear that IT professionals have to work harder to explain how technological solutions can help ‘force’ compliance,” Bartolozzi said. “Much like the findings of our surveys of IT professionals and traders released earlier this year, these results speak to a need for much greater collaboration and teamwork between the constituent teams who together make the trading functions of global financial institutions work.”

The survey also found that 30% of compliance professionals said new technologies are creating compliance issues. The technologies they believe to pose the biggest challenge are tablet devices (35%) smart phones (24%), and traders using non-company equipment. By contrast, 100% of traders surveyed agreed that technological changes had a positive impact on trading, and 97% said they use their smart phone all day in their working life.  These numbers point to another headache for IT professionals as they struggle to deal with traders who rely on using their own devices for work purposes, at the same time as trying to manage compliance with new regulations.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries – including a financial extranet of 4,000 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.

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider electronic trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, today announced SS&C Technologies Holdings, Inc. has joined IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet service. SS&C’s applications include FIXLink®, MarketCenter, and SS&C MarketTrader. Connexus will allow SS&C customers to transact, receive and distribute information seamlessly in an open trading ecosystem.

Using IPC’s Connexus, buy-side and sell-side firms may quickly and cost efficiently access a broad range of SS&C applications such as FIXLink, MarketCenter, and SS&C MarketTrader. FIXLink is [designed to be] a robust and highly agile electronic trading community that provides a complete solution to all FIX connectivity needs enabling capital market participants to quickly connect to any party. SS&C MarketCenter is an outsourced electronic trading infrastructure solution offering a broad variety of advanced message handling services, from FIX connectivity management to regulatory compliance reporting services, and which can be integrated with any set of trading platforms. SS&C MarketTrader is an easy-to-use and cost-effective OEMS offering broker-dealers and institutions a comprehensive set of tools for order and execution management.

“With Connexus, we are giving our buy-side, sell-side and inter-dealer brokers access to all of our applications and services in one dedicated connection,” said Bob Moitoso, Senior Vice President and General Manager, SS&C’s Financial Markets Group. “Our customers demand quick, seamless and efficient access to global markets and IPC’s Connexus Extranet allows us to meet those demands.”

 

“SS&C is a leading provider of electronic trading solutions, and we’re honored that they have chosen IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet to help meet their growing global business needs,” said David Brown, senior vice president, managing director, Network Services for IPC Systems. “We look forward to helping SS&C continue to grow their business and improve and extend their reach into global markets.”

Connexus is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio which also includes private extranet and DirectConnect data services, as well as Trader and 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 more than 58 countries. Connexus leverages a highly scalable, reliable and secure Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS) platform which adheres to financial industry standards such as the FIX protocol.

About SS&C Technologies

SS&C is a global provider of investment and financial software-enabled services and software focused exclusively on the global financial services industry. Founded in 1986, SS&C has its headquarters in Windsor, Connecticut and offices around the world. Some 5,500 financial services organizations, from the world’s largest institutions to local firms, manage and account for their investments using SS&C’s products and services. These clients in the aggregate manage over $26 trillion in assets. For more information, visit www.ssctech.com.

Additional information about SS&C (Nasdaq:SSNC) is available at www.ssctech.com.

Follow SS&C on Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to more than 58 countries – including a financial extranet of 4,000 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.

IPC Systems today announced the deployment of their best-selling Unigy unified trading communications platform to the National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).

“We are excited to implement Unigy within our infrastructure to realize the business advantages provided by the scalable hardware and centralized management solutions while lowering our overall operating costs,” said Mr. Robert Smith, Deputy SGM Global Financial Markets & GM Trading and Investments, Trading Floor, NBAD. “The migration from our old system was smooth, and the domestic installation and support will help us expand our presence within our markets.”

The business continuity planning system has been implemented in the bank’s Abu Dhabi headquarters and in their Dubai offices, with a total of 111 positions across their two front-room sites. This makes NBAD the first bank in the UAE to deploy Unigy reinforcing their technological leadership and enabling them to react quickly using the industry’s most advanced trading communications platform.

“Our deployment of the Unigy system includes two back room data centers, including one specifically designated for data recovery.  A third back room data center was also put in place, giving us further protection in case of a complete loss of the others, providing a future-proof solution for business continuity planning,” said Mr. Jamal Abboud, Head – Business Services, IT Department , NBAD. “This project was domestically handled by Rashed Al Makhawi Enterprises (RAME) – a leading solutions provider in the Middle East. Their approach and detailed progress reports helped reassure us throughout the project delivery. We are satisfied with their execution and responsiveness”.

NBAD’s Unigy implementation will help keep them resilient in case of any data connection interruption and will help improve the bank’s current efficiency and productivity. IPC Systems, as a leading provider of trading communications, will be able to support the bank locally because of its global positioning.

“We are very proud to have been selected to install this system for NBAD to help transform their trading workflow,” added Mr. Vivek Raghavan, General Manager, Rashed Al Makhawi Enterprises. “Our team of skilled field engineers and highly trained technicians provide support online, on-site and over the phone 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to help our clients run at peak efficiency. Our strong partnership with IPC helps us offer this exemplary aftersales service and support.”

 

“We are excited that the National Bank of Abu Dhabi has chosen Unigy for its business continuity needs,” said Mark Miller, Vice President, Product Management for IPC. “Our ultimate goal is to provide customers with the tools and technologies they need to succeed in an increasingly competitive environment. We will continue to work to meet the diverse needs of our financial customers in this region and around the world to deliver not only technology but also the highest standard of customer care.”

Unigy is IPC’s revolutionary unified trading communications and applications platform. The Unigy platform’s open standards and service oriented architecture (SOA) help streamline trading workflows, create custom apps for a competitive edge, reduce operational risks and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) for firms of all sizes.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries – including a financial extranet of 4,000 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 National Bank of Abu Dhabi

The National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), The Number One Bank in UAE, was incorporated in 1968 and is listed on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX), under stock code (NBAD). Ranked as one of the top 50 safest banks in the world, NBAD currently operates across 13 countries on four continents. NBAD has a network of more than 110 branches and 430 ATMs in the UAE in addition to cash offices that are spread out in remote locations to provide banking services to customers all over the UAE. Besides brick & mortar branches, NBAD provides 24 hour internet banking access through NbadOnline and NbadDirect, the SMS-based payment service (Arrow) as well as account access and personalised customer support through its 24-hour Call Centre.

NBAD’s overseas network stretches from Oman, Kuwait, and Bahrain in the G.C.C.; Egypt, Libya, and Sudan in Africa; UK, France, and Switzerland in Europe; Hong Kong and Jordan in Asia to Washington, D.C. in the U.S.A. Overall, NBAD has nearly 50 branches and 60 ATMs outside the UAE. NBAD provides its customers with a wide variety of financial services targeting all segments of the consumer and corporate markets. NBAD is rated senior long term/short term A+/A-1 by Standard and Poor’s, Aa3/P1 by Moody’s and AA-/F1+ by Fitch giving it one of the strongest combined rating of any Middle Eastern financial institution. Committed to the service of the UAE society, NBAD has a written Corporate Social Responsibility Mission, which forms an important element of the Bank’s overall strategy.

About Rashed Al Makhawi Enterprises

Rashed Al Makhawi Enterprises L.L.C (RAME), headquartered in Dubai, has over a decade’s experience as a leading, trusted and well known mission-critical technology solutions provider in the Middle East region. Its core domain expertise lies in the sectors of banking and financial services, contact centres, telecoms, oil & gas companies and public safety organizations. With a strong focus on delighting the customer every time, RAME’s solutions are backed-up with unmatched after-sales support and service which is a benchmark in the industry. The company has its own in-house dedicated, qualified, factory trained and certified technical team which works on a 24×7 basis. It has also become the preferred and exclusive partner for various category majors.

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms, has won two categories in the Waters Rankings 2013. This is IPC’s ninth straight year with a win in the Waters Rankings, having been named “Best Network Provider” for the first time and having won the “Best Trading Turret Provider” from 2005 to 2010 and the “Best Trading Floor Communication System Provider” category in 2011 and 2012.

“It is truly an honor to receive a double recogntion by industry leaders and experts as both the best trading floor communications system provider and best network provider,” Michael Speranza, senior vice president, Global Product Management, IPC, said. “Our vast customer community has truly confirmed that they value our innovative technology and dedicated service in meeting their demanding needs.”

IPC’s Financial Markets Network (FMN) comprehensive suite of mission-critical managed network services  designed and operated for global financial markets. It facilitates more than one trillion dollars of capital markets trading commerce daily and enables the complete trade lifecycle across all asset classes. The FMN includes voice and data connectivity solutions including private wires, financial extranet cloud, managed VPN, Ethernet services, transport solutions and colocation.

Unigy, IPC’s revolutionary unified trading communications 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 such as IQ/MAX turrets, PBX phone systems and voice recording equipment to help trading firms of every size transform their workflow, making traders significantly more productive and their operations much more profitable.

“For the last decade_, Waters_ magazine has turned to its expert reader base to determine which vendors lead in their respective fields for the annual Waters Rankings. For the past nine years, Waters _readers have selected IPC as Best Trading Turret Provider and Best Trading Floor Communication System and have now added Best Network Provider to IPC’s honors,” said Anthony Malakian, US editor, _Waters.

 

“Our primary goal is to provide our customers with top-of-the-line technology that grants them a competitive advantage in every stage of the trading lifecycle,” said IPC’s Speranza. “We strive to help our customers do their jobs more quickly, effectively and efficiently.  Winning both the trading communications and network awards reinforces our commitment to continued growth and the development of cutting edge solutions that meet their collaboration and trading needs.”

The Waters Rankings are the annual readers’ choice awards of Waters magazine, which recognize the combined leadership of technological capabilities and human expertise in each category. Qualified voters hail from buy- and sell-side firms as well as exchanges and brokerages. More than 1,000 voters chose the best financial IT solution and services in the annual Waters Rankings.

About Waters

Each month, Waters reports and analyzes the practical implementation of financial technology in the wholesale banking and securities industries. Since its launch in 1993, financial IT professionals worldwide have relied on the magazine for its focused, in-depth coverage of financial market data and technology as well as the human issues of talent management, staff retention and compensation within the financial services community. With more than 10,000 subscribers, _Waters _readers enjoy the insights of CIOs and CTOs from the global capital markets. Waters is published by Incisive Media Plc. For more information, please visit www.watersonline.com and www.incisivemedia.com.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 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.

IT departments in financial firms say they are failing to understand the needs of today’s trader, according to a survey examining the relationship between the IT department and the trader, conducted by IPC Systems.  More than half of IT professionals surveyed said their departments did not completely understand traders’ needs.  Furthermore, just 38% of them said they felt they meet the needs of traders or the trading group very well.  Traders surveyed agree with that assessment with 55% saying that IT did not understand their needs completely.

IPC surveyed more than 120 IT professionals and traders during TradeTech in London in March.  Nearly 60% of IT respondents were management-level executives. Traders surveyed represented a wide-range of financial services including asset management, broker/dealers, proprietary trading, exchanges and hedge funds.  Slightly more than half focused primarily on equities trading, but all major asset classes were represented including bonds, commodities, derivatives and foreign exchange.

The admitted lack of understanding exists despite the survey finding that 93% of IT respondents said their groups hold regular meetings with traders to inform them of potential and emerging new technologies. In addition, the issue has not affected traders’ view on the impact of technology: 100% of traders surveyed said technological changes have had a positive impact on trading.

“While traders say they are certainly seeing the benefits of technology, it is worrying that there is a recognised lack of understanding between these two groups,” Simon Jones, Director of Product Marketing at IPC, said. “Such a disconnect can put firms at a disadvantage, something the survey respondents recognize. According to the survey, both groups believe technology is increasingly important to help deliver competitive advantage and minimise risk for trading firms. The call to action for companies in this industry is to create working environments that enable real-time collaboration on solving business problems.”

Other key findings from the IPC survey include:

• Technology has been a boon to traders…
• 85% of traders say that technology has increased trading efficiency
• 87% reporting increased earnings potential as a result of technological changes
• 88% said technology has increased system reliability
• But it comes with a price
• 86% of traders say  they have experienced increased performance expectations
• 77% report increased job stress levels
• 82% reporting increases in pace or volume of trades
• 84% reporting increased dependence on IT support as a result of technological changes

“It’s not surprising that technological improvements are seen by traders as a double-edged sword, and we are increasingly seeing firms looking for ways to address the issues of increased pace and stress bear watching because of the potential to negatively impact  traders’ performance,” IPC’s Simon Jones said.

According to Jones, there has been a growing emphasis on applying technology to help make traders more efficient rather than simply focusing on the trading work flow. “The human element is still a critical part of trading and technology is now being applied to help traders deal more effectively and efficiently with the faster pace and increased volume in today’s trading environment,” Jones said.  “There is tremendous growth in the development of productivity tools and customized applications that streamline the trading workflow and simplify compliance for traders.”

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivalled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 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.

With new regulations governing OTC derivatives trading coming into play, IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet has seen significant growth among swap execution facilities (SEFs) and firms scrambling to secure connectivity to ensure competitiveness in the swaps market.

“The rapid growth of the OTC derivatives market and the implementation of the new regulations governing the market have helped drive the growth of our Connexus Extranet,” said Joe Pickel, vice president, Network Services Product Management. “Nearly three-quarters of firms expect their trading volumes to increase this year, while more than 60 percent of firms are or will be connected to one or more SEFs,”

The IPC Connexus Extranet was introduced in late 2011 to offer capital markets firms increased flexibility and responsiveness, bringing them speed, simplicity, expertise and cost advantages, including access to a broad range of cloud-based trade lifecycle services through a single connection. Since then, more than a dozen SEFs, including Eris Exchange, IntercontinentalExchange and Javelin Capital Markets, have been added to the network in preparation for the inevitable changes in the structure of the OTC derivatives markets brought about by new regulations.

“We are delighted that IPC is providing connectivity to a diverse pool of market participants seeking direct access to the Javelin trading platform,” said Michael Black, Head of Infrastructure, Javelin Capital Markets. “As the OTC derivatives markets embrace change, it is extremely important for our clients to have reliable and secure connectivity to our platform for trade execution.”

“As the market structure for OTC derivatives continues to evolve, IPC is providing its customers with solutions that help their clients seize opportunities to grow and profit,” Pickel said. “The additional visibility and control Connexus provides enables customers to make better connectivity and bandwidth decisions and help their firms operate smarter, faster and more efficiently.  The numbers of SEFs connected to Connexus grant traders vast opportunities in a growing market.”

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 and Enhanced voice communications services. The IPC Financial Markets Network is an expansive global network designed for voice and electronic trading and caters exclusively to the exacting demands of capital market participants. The network interconnects global financial centers and allows access to more than 4,500 market participant locations in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries.

About IPC

IPC offers high- and low-touch trading communications solutions to the global financial trading community including the top investment banks, hedge funds and investment managers in established and emerging markets. With a 100-percent focus on this sector and nearly 40 years of expertise and an unrivaled record of innovation, IPC provides customers with unified solutions that support collaborative voice trading and real-time electronic trading and market data connectivity.  IPC’s offerings include the first unified communications/application platform, award-winning hard and soft turrets, electronic connectivity services including enhanced voice services, business continuity solutions, and follow-the-sun service and support. IPC’s global reach extends to nearly 60 countries – including a financial extranet of more than 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.