Cross Border Exchange (CBX) has won approval to operate as a Swift Electronic Trade Confirmation provider and Swift Service Bureau, and kicked off an alliance with financial technology consultancy Capco to deliver outsourced pre- and post-trade STP services for network users.
CBX and Capco first partnered in May 2002 to explore the development of integrated consulting and technology solutions for the $30 trillion cross-border securities market.
The two firms plan to offer the new facility as a stand-alone service or serve as a concentrator to allow small- and medium-size firms to reach market infrastructure providers without investing heavily in inhouse technology and related infrastructure.
As a Swift ETC Service Provider, CBX will act as an agent on behalf of its investment manager and broker/dealer customers in exchanging electronic trade confirmation messages (orders, executions, allocations, cancellations) and sending settlement instruction messages over SwiftNet. CBX and Capco plan to begin pilot testing for this service in the fourth quarter of 2003.
Joe Anastasio, chief executive officer of Cross Border Exchange, and chairman, lead client partner, Capco North America, says: "Combined with Capco's stature in the industry, we are now able to bring to life much-needed STP solutions that will significantly reduce cross-border trading and settlement costs for Swift's global members."
Through the Swift Service Bureau designation, CBX and Capco will additionally provide outsourced processing, including FIX connectivity, trade enrichment services linked to message delivery through the Swift network, and settlement status reporting.
The four-year old CBX recently aligned with agency broker Auerbach Grayson to form Axes, a new global cross border trade execution and STP settlement service with local brokers from Auerbach Grayson's network in over 80 markets all linked to common STP web-enabled technology provided by CBX.
"This new platform created with CBX as a multi-lateral extension of the Auerbach Grayson hub and spoke network will provide an unparalleled global order routing, execution, and settlement monitoring system," says David Grayson, Auerbach Grayson. "We plan to make Axes available to all Swift members through the ETC and Service Bureau offerings in early 2004."
The CBX GeoTrades platform is currently being deployed to Citibank, providing technology to its clearing and custodial clients in markets throughout the world. The platform enables Citibank to offer linked execution facilities to its network of clearing branches for straight-through processing of cross border trades, from order entry to settlement.