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IPC, a leading provider of unified trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms, today announced that Lance Boxer has retired from his role as Chief Executive Officer. Neil Barua, a veteran technology industry executive, has been appointed as the company’s interim Chief Executive Officer.

The company has commenced a search for a permanent chief executive officer and will consider internal and external candidates. The leadership transition at IPC is effective immediately.

Mr. Boxer retired from the company after misrepresentations were discovered in the educational background included in his official company biography.

“I deeply regret misrepresenting my educational background and have concluded my retirement is in IPC’s best interest,” said Mr. Boxer. “I want to emphasize that my lapse in judgment was a personal mistake and my departure is wholly unrelated to the company’s operations and performance.”

Mr. Boxer added: “IPC is positioned for continued growth under the leadership of a highly talented management team. I wish the company and my colleagues’ great success going forward.”

“We thank Lance for his many contributions to IPC,” the company’s board said. “We remain confident in IPC’s performance and growth outlook under the company’s current management and the incoming senior leadership.”

Interim Chief Executive Officer Neil Barua previously served on the executive leadership team of telecommunications company Global Crossing and is currently an operating partner at Silver Lake, the global leader in technology investing.

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.

In the wake of increasingly tight regulations, capital markets firms are being confronted with new operational challenges and risks every day. Regulators have imposed voice recording requirements that require a holistic approach to the management of the voice recording platform by teams of people with experience managing these systems in a regulated environment. To help capital markets firms address new regulatory mandates and reduce their operational risk, IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms today announced the debut of their voice recording management (VRM) service. Available through IPC Enhanced Services, the offering further deepens IPC’s relationship with its roster of leading financial services firms.

VRM was developed as a response to customer demand for specialized services to support their voice recording compliance efforts,  reduce operational risks of managing the system and improve flexibility. More and more complex regulations such as Dodd-Frank and MiFID are generating a substantial increase in the amount of attention required for voice recording, including administration, archival, and retrieval of recorded calls.

• A part of the IPC Enhanced Services solution set, VRM will provide:
• Voice recording assessment including confirmation of call recording and archival over a 90- day period along with testing of the system’s integrity
• Daily health checks verifying the platform is operational and recording all  calls the customer designates
• Patch management and implementation to keep the platform current diminishing risk of disruption of trading
• Lab testing of new products and software to certify they function as intended when deployed

“Despite the growth of automated trading, voice based communication remains a key element of today’s trading landscape,” said Dushyant Shahrawat, Senior Research Director, CEB TowerGroup. “But what’s become critical is to better manage, optimize and control voice communication, compared to five years ago. Major drivers are cost considerations, competitive factors, and the incredible pressure of new regulations that require firms to monitor, audit and archive voice based traffic”.

 

“Capital markets firms face the challenge of complying with multiple, evolving global regulations,” said Paul DiBlasi, IPC’S Director of Product Management. “Being able to continuously capture and archive required calls as well as retrieve complete records for compliance and regulators is both an art and a science. IPC’s experience supporting hundreds of banks and brokerages has bred a high level of voice recording expertise throughout the organization.  This experience is combined with our ITIL-based processes to deliver an unrivaled service that helps firms reduce their operational risk, manage costs, and most importantly, comply with complex regulations”.

IPC Enhanced Services offerings are dedicated to providing managed services solutions with a flexible service model to meet the specific needs of individual customers and manage the trading communications infrastructure of financial institutions. IPC Enhanced Services works with firms to develop the solutions that meet their individual requirements and provides the right combination of skilled resources, standard processes and systems to provide consistent, reliable service.

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 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.

2014 is poised to be a year of innovation and competitive differentiation in the financial services industry, based on the results from a recent survey of financial firms that highlights an increased investment in technology for 2014 to drive business growth and manage the market challenges in the coming year.  The survey, “A Look Ahead to Industry Technology Trends in 2014” 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, and released today, shows that traders and IT decision makers want to grow their businesses in the next year with added network services and infrastructure to streamline their processes and become more cost-effective.

Although technology for traders, the trading desk and trading floor is still a priority, the survey reflected a shift in financial institutions’ budgets compared to last year’s survey*, with 46% of respondents showing these to come second to network infrastructure. Updates necessitated by regulatory changes distracted from traders’ 2013 technology priorities and proved a need for sufficient network security and connectivity to global markets in the next year to stay competitive. Investing in business infrastructure will help firms tap into their existing data for customer insights and potential opportunities. Of those surveyed, 56% said they would utilize managed services in 2014 to maintain their market data technology, as well as mobility trading solutions (12%) and voice recording (10%).

“Market data has been delivered as a managed service for some time now, and financial firms have realized the additional value-add that managed services can deliver when integrating this with their current financial technology,” said Bart Bartolozzi, senior product marketing manager at IPC Systems. “New and innovative managed services offerings are now being delivered that provide firms with deeper technology oversight, best practice processes and other benefits that provide efficiency and productivity advantages or help meet the burden of increased regulatory pressures.”

Additional key findings include:

• 55 percent of respondents said they do not plan to implement a cloud-based infrastructure on the trading floor, down from 100 percent of respondents in 2013 who said they would, or already had, implemented a cloud infrastructure.
• 34 percent of participants said their primary driver for technology investments were to gain a competitive advantage.
• Nearly a third of firms say they will increase investments in mobile and desktop trading technology.

The research covered a broad range of roles for staff supporting the full trading lifecycle from order initiation and execution to clearing and settlement. Respondents came from the front, middle, and back office and included people involved in both the business and technology side of trading support.

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.

Astrends in OTC derivatives trading continue to be influenced by new regulations and technology, IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of voice and electronic trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms and global enterprises, today announced that TeraExchange, an approved Swap Execution Facility (SEF), has joined IPC’s Connexus Financial Extranet service.

Using IPC’s Connexus, numerous capital market participants around the globe will beable to access a variety of trading technologies from TeraExchange. As well as a multi-asset class central limit order book, these services include TeraDirect, a full-featured execution management system (EMS); and TeraCheck, a credit risk management tool.

“Providing access to IPC’s network provides significant operational improvements to our users,” said Leonard T. Nuara, President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-Founder of TeraExchange. “It will enhance compliance through the use of a proven and secure extranet.”

 

“IPC is committed to providing industry leading, value-added network solutions fortraders in a reliable and secure environment,” said Bart Bartolozzi, Senior Product Marketing Manager, IPC. “The growth in OTC trading and the launch of SEFs are the latest trends in the industry and are therefore in high demand. Connexus provides leading market participants with access to critical trade lifecycle applications from TeraExchange that enables their participation in this industry opportunity.”

The Connexus Financial Extranet 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 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 innearly 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 TeraExchange

TeraExchange is a CFTC registered swap execution facility (SEF) offering market participants an anonymous, multi-asset class central limit order book (CLOB) for interestrate swaps, credit default swap indices and FX derivatives.

With benchmark and bespoke instruments listed, TeraExchange enables participants to initiate, hedge, consolidate or terminate a diverse set of risk positions. TeraExchange also offers institutional investors a direct-to-dealer (or request-for-quote) trading protocol integrated into its CLOB including compression and unwind services for full life-cycle management.

In addition to its core trading platform, TeraExchange offers two other trading tools for institutional investors. TeraDirect is a front-end execution management system that provides real-time pricing from a range of execution venues, as well as other tools needed to trade on TeraExchange. TeraCheck is a proprietary pre-trade credit risk management engine for market participants, including futures commission merchants (FCMs). TeraCheck integrates seamlessly with in-house and external credit hub systems. Participants may also connect to TeraExchange via FIX, FAST, FpML and other protocols.

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading provider of unified trading communications solutions to the world’s top financial services firms, today announced that industry veteran Neil Gray has joined as the Vice President of Product Marketing in its Trading Communications Solutions division.

A respected industry innovator, Graybrings over 20 years’ experience of creating and launching new products which have changed the way the trading industry communicates.  Neil is a leading authority on the use of communications and collaboration technology in trading, having built and sold two successful companies offering new technology tofinancial institutions.  In his position at IPC, Gray will be instrumental in charting IPC’s future product strategy and engaging with customers and potential partners.

Neil’s unparalleled experience includes founding and growing Veclipse, a global business delivering next generation Trader Voice solutions for trading institutions including some of the top global banking firms, and founding and growing Purple Voice, a Microsoft operating system based early soft-switch technology, which provided the first software-only Intercom, Hoots and Broadcasts to desktops in global financial trading houses.

This is not Neil’s first time working at IPC.  Neil sold his business, PurpleVoice, to IPC in 2003 and continued on as the Vice President Product Development.  During his time in the role, he created soft and mobility solutions that allowed a single global number plan for internet working between systems.

Michael Speranza, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Trading Communication Systems, said, “Neil rejoins IPC at an exciting time for the company, and the market.  The industry is going through massive change, and IPC is uniquely positioned to leverage its heritage, technology and customer base to help its clients capitalise on the new opportunities available to them.  Neil is a real thought-leader in the industry and we’re delighted to welcome him back to IPC.”

Gray’s appointment is part of a broader strategic plan at IPC.  The company sees big market opportunities and sought to put the best team in place to take advantage of those opportunities.  Gray will lead the team responsible for creating new IPC products that will further enable financial institutions to manage high profile issues including compliance, mobility/BYOD, and end-user productivity.

Commenting on his new role, Neil Gray said, “I am really excited to be rejoining IPC and collaborating with this team of innovators.  I’m energized by the company’s fantastic mix of strong market position, strategic assets that others in the industry can only dream of, and helping them realize their strategic vision.”

Neil Gray will be based in IPC’s City of London operation.

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 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 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.