Delivered as a hosted, managed service, Caplin Direct is designed for banks that want a modern FX single-dealer platform, but have previously been held back by the cost and technical challenges involved. Caplin Direct eliminates these barriers by delivering a fully operational single-dealer platform as a service. Once connected to a trading system it provides an ‘out of the box’ SDP, while providing unlimited scope for branding, customization and extension with unique features and workflows.

Using Caplin Direct, a bank can bring a state-of-the-art FX online trading offering to market in a matter of weeks, at a fraction of the cost of an in-house build. Using proven Caplin Platform and Caplin Trader technology, the new service connects quickly and easily to existing e-trading systems, whether vendor-hosted or deployed. To speed the process still further, Caplin offers standard adapters for many popular trading systems.

“We have long been the solution of choice for banks wanting to build and host their own SDPs,” says Paul Caplin, CEO of Caplin Systems. “And we continue to enthusiastically serve and support larger banks that are looking for a technology stack that they can deploy and customize themselves. But with Caplin Direct, we are now able to cater for the many banks that would prefer a managed service that just works.”

Over 50% of all screen-based FX flow now goes through single-dealer platforms (SDPs), and SDP volumes are up 32% year-on-year, according to the latest figures from the Bank of England. SDP flow is typically four times as profitable for a bank as flow through multi-dealer platforms.

“We are already in talks with regional banks around the world about using the new service,” says Adam Hawley, Commercial Director of Caplin Systems. “The fact that Caplin Direct is built on the same Caplin technology used by Citi, whose Velocity offering was recently voted the world’s top FX single-dealer platform, means that banks can absolutely trust the reliability and security of the technology and rely on us to minimize the time, costs and risks involved in building a high performance single-dealer platform.”

As well as FX, Caplin Direct will in the near future support further asset classes including equities and futures. The service includes optional pre-trade content such as news and charting, and can be customized for specific user segments such as institutional, corporate, retail and internal sales desks. Caplin Direct is available for desktop web clients now, with tablet and smartphone versions coming in Q1 2014.