09.20.2012

Regulations Spur Front and Middle Office Consolidation

09.20.2012
Terry Flanagan

Regulations and market structure changes are putting sell-side firms under pressure to solidify their trading infrastructures.

Many of these issues will be discussed this week at the Security Traders Association conference in Washington, including large trader reporting, tick size analysis, the Volcker Rule and the market access rule.

Firms such as Keefe, Bruyette & Woods (KBW), a full-service investment bank and broker-dealer specializing in the financial services sector, are using Fidessa’s sell-side trading platform in order to consolidate front and middle offices.

KBW has leveraged Fidessa’s U.S. and European sell-side trading platform for more than eight years to support its equity sales and trading businesses across North America, Europe and Asia.

“It’s a longstanding relationship,” said Justin Llewellyn-Jones, chief operating officer at Fidessa U.S., a trading and technology company. “Back in 2004, when we first signed KBW, they had a U.S. domestic focused, very high-touch tactical full-service investment banking and brokerage business. Today, the brokerage and capital markets community provide diversified services, coupled with low equities domestic volumes. KBW has evolved into the international market, opening offices in both London and Hong Kong, trading international equities, and Fidessa is providing solutions for all of those businesses.”

Fidessa provides KBW with execution capabilities through its global order management system (OMS), including algorithmic trading, pairs trading, indications of interest, direct market access and compliance, as well as functionality to support client allocations and trade confirmations.

The integration of the front and middle offices, coupled with the Fidessa network and connectivity services, gives KBW the benefits of a consolidated platform.

“We wanted to exploit the efficiencies of a single consolidated platform across the front and middle office,” said John Ragan, director of equity trading at KBW, in a statement. “Naturally, our requirements have changed over the eight years we have worked with Fidessa.”

Since 2004, KBW has “put together a set of execution services for the buy side, extending beyond simple high-touch to aggressive use of direct market access and algorithmic order flow”, Llewellyn-Jones at Fidessa said. “In addition, KBW has spent a lot of time in the middle office space around client allocations and trade confirmations. The service elements of brokerage are very important, and KBW is taking advantage of Fidessa’s scale to offer execution services globally.”

Markets Media Group was pleased to host the 2025 European Women in Finance Awards last night at Claridge’s in London.
#WomeninFinance #WIF #EuropeanFinance #FinanceCommunity

See the full list of winners here: https://www.marketsmedia.com/2025-european-women-in-finance-awards-the-winners/

3

We are excited to announce the finalists for the 2025 U.S. Women in Finance Awards! Congratulations to all!

Check out the full list here:


#WomeninFinance #WIF #financeindustry

Nominations are NOW OPEN for the 2026 Women in Finance LatAm Awards! Do you know a standout leader, innovator, or rising star? Nominate her today!

Learn more & submit your nomination:

#WomeninFinance #Finance #WIF

HSBC AI Markets harnesses natural language processing to meet market participants’ trading and hedging needs, from pre-trade analysis, to execution, to post-trade. Markets Media caught up with Tom Croft to learn more about the platform.

#AIMarkets

Load More

Related articles

  1. There was a 34% improvement in predicting how likely a trade would be filled at a quoted price.

  2. Execution algorithms are a growing share of global spot FX, particularly among buy-side firms.

  3. Demand for state-of-the-art execution algorithms in FX is growing rapidly.

  4. FCMs Promote Algorithmic Trading

    There was a 75% year-over-year increase in daily principal traded.

  5. FCMs Promote Algorithmic Trading

    SmartDark features prioritized routing to venues with larger executions sizes and better price stability.

We're Enhancing Your Experience with Smart Technology

We've updated our Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy to introduce AI tools that will personalize your content, improve our market analysis, and deliver more relevant insights.These changes take effect on Aug 25, 2025.
Your data remains protected—we're simply using smart technology to serve you better. [Review Full Terms] | [Review Privacy Policy] Please review our updated Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy carefully. By continuing to use our services after Aug 25, 2025, you agree to these

Close the CTA