Capital markets portal site CFOWeb.com has switched on its service to provide live pricing and trading of over-the-counter financial products, including foreign exchange and interest rate derivatives.
The move follows the recent recruitment of several new financial services providers to the site, including: Dresdner Kleinwort Benson; ING Barings; and Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi. They join inaugural providers ABN Amro, AIG International, BNP Paribas, Bank of America, and Standard Chartered.
"This is a new day in capital markets," boasts Harpal Sandhu, chief executive officer of CFOWeb operator Integral. "For the first time, corporate treasurers and fund managers have free access to a wider range of prices for products to finance operations and manage risk in their businesses around the world."
With the commencement of live pricing, CFOWeb members can model and price financial trades from multiple financial services providers including foreign exchange (spot/forward), foreign exchange options, interest rate swaps, currency swaps, interest rate caps/floors, forward rate agreements, and loans and deposits.
Of CFOWeb.com's more than 2,500 members, some 35 percent are based in Europe, Japan and the Far East. US members represent about 20 percent of the Fortune 250 list of largest companies.
"This makes clear the power and potential of CFOWeb.com in facilitating global e-commerce in capital markets on a true 24-hour basis," says Sandhu. "Banks, meanwhile, are using CFOWeb.com to augment proprietary e-commerce systems or to rapidly implement an e-commerce platform without the often prohibitive cost and delays of building their own."
The US-based Association of Financial Professionals (AFP) last year surveyed its members to find that more than 50 percent will use the Internet as a one-stop source of financial services from multiple providers in a secure, exchange-like environment centered on a portal such as CFOWeb.com.