EBS is re-architecting its bilateral relationship platform EBS Direct to provide faster real-time data, improved functionality and enhanced capacity and performance.

This month EBS, part of CME Group, announced they were upgrading their EBS Direct platform which will take round-trip processing times to below 50 microseconds.

Hugh Whelan, global head of liquidity management at EBS, said round-trip processing times are currently in the low millisecond range, but EBS aims to bring these down materially to below 50 microseconds within 18 months. “There will of course be incremental reductions in latency and improved functionality within this time,” he added.

Whelan continued that the new platform will also significantly improve execution and the overall trading experience for all clients.

“EBS Direct is currently supporting (and will continue to support) both disclosed and non-disclosed trading via a GUI and API,” he said.

He explained that API clients will benefit from the improved latency and additional order types while manual users will benefit from the faster order processing times.

Whelan added that EBS Direct is moving with the times as FX market structure evolves. In 2013 the EBS community traded via a graphical user interface (GUI) but the demands of API users have changed with the advent of internalisation and aggregation.

“To provide real-time data, increase order processing times and improve functionality, we needed to operate on a different architecture,” he said.

EBS Direct is currently live in beta-testing with a subset of clients. Clients will transition to the new platform in four phases over the next 18 months, adding new functionality and reducing latency at each stage. The platform will be rolled out to clients in North America first, then EMEA and Asia.

“The roll out is expected to be completed by the first half of 2021, after which time the current EBS Direct architecture will be decommissioned,” added Whelan.

Analytics

EBS launched its EBS Quant Analytics platform for foreign exchange in September 2017. In March 2019, EBS enhanced the service to include an outbound API streaming component.

EBS said the new API streaming service will permit clients to analyse their individual and relative performance more efficiently than ever before, by consuming the data in real-time and in their own environments, ultimately helping them grow volumes and revenues. The new functionality streams trade information, market impact and alpha calculations on a trade-by-trade basis to clients against benchmark data taken from the EBS ecosystem.

Whelan said: “The launch of the EBS Quant Analytics platform, was an immense success and has set the standard for others who have followed. We have continued to develop the platform, more recently we have added an outbound API streaming service to compliment the GUI.”

There is also increasing demand for data related to best execution and transaction cost analysis.

“As trades occur, the real-time analysis of spreads and hold times becomes increasingly more important to the EBS community,” added Whelan.  We will continue to evolve our data analytics to ensure we continue to offer the strongest trade execution performance on a day-to-day basis.”