FIX-enabled systems provides standardized interfaces.

Regulatory changes and open architectures are at the top of the agenda for 2012 as asset managers seek technology that will enable them to remain fast on their feet.

“Our research and feedback from the market tells us that the buy side is fed up with dealing with large systems providers that have grown ‘fat’ over the years and as a result, difficult to deploy, upgrade and maintain,” Oliver Hugh-Jones, head of sales at Cymba Technologies, told Markets Media. “The overall cost of ownership is therefore way too high.”

It’s clear that reforms such as MiFID II and EMIR will have an impact on investment firms especially in terms of cost of doing business.

“We are helping clients on a number of fronts in terms of extending our existing reporting around best execution and helping with controls around algo trading,” said Hugh-Jones. “Much of what we will be doing is around clarity of workflow and configuring the relevant checks, reports and comprehensive audit trail to ensure compliance around the new rules.”

Investment management systems are taking advantage of standardized interfaces, such as FIX, to link their users with external trading platforms.

Cymba Technologies has configured its Athena system—a multi-asset suite of products providing pre- and post-trade compliance, portfolio modeling, and order management with a FIX-based open architecture that enable sit to connect to major trading destinations.

The open architecture design of the Athena platform allows Cymba or its clients to rapidly deploy additional connections when needed.

Cymba Athena provides access to a number of destinations, including links to Pipeline Financial, Calastone, broker networks such as NYSE (NYFIX), as well as FIX connections to most of the leading EMS vendors such as Bloomberg EMSX, FlexTrade, and TradingScreen, Hugh-Jones said.

Cymba provides integrated access to the online FX trading platform, FXall.  “Clients of the Athena IMS have seamless access to the FXall suite through a dedicated FIX connection,” said Hugh-Jones.