Cross-border trade matching outfit GSTP has confirmed a shareholder vote to suspend business operations and wind-up of the cash-strapped company after failing to attract sufficient business volumes from the global fund management community.
The GSTP - which was competing with the Thomson/DTCC joint venture Omgeo to build critical mass for its virtual matching utility - has been struggling to grow volumes since the service went live in September.
Established by 41 member firms as an industry-backed not-for-profit initiative, GSTP exhausted its start-up funding during a prolonged build phase which saw the company ditch an initial contract with the axion4 technology consortium in favour of a facilities management deal with SunGard.
The vote to wind up the company came as the GSTP's backers shied away from further funding of the venture in the absence of any firm support from the asset management community.
In a statement, the GSTP says: "Matters that impacted specifically included the shelving of the T+1 settlement plans in the United States, declining market volumes globally, and the general state of the global economy."
The GSTP's commercial relationship with SunGard, which is itself bidding to establish its own VMU, is also understood to have irked industry participants who were loathe to continue to fund an operation which lined the pockets of a third party vendor.