ULLINK was selected as their Best Execution solution provider by eight major financial institutions, including BANCO SANTANDER (Spain), CM-CIC SECURITIES (France), JEFFERIES (United Kingdom), KAS BANK (Netherlands) and SEB (Sweden). This successful implementation of MiFID's most complex requirement is the result of ULLINK's close collaboration with some of Europe's most active firms over the past two years. It led to a straightforward solution bringing full compliance to retail and institutional business across cash and derivatives markets.

"After a full week in production at eight client sites, we are witnessing exceptionally low levels of best execution latency, down to 2 milliseconds for large volumes at one of our Tier-1 brokers. Our strategy of embedded decision making and market data caching proves the right choice: it allows our clients to comply with MiFID best execution requirements without sacrificing the execution latency of their existing solution" says Georges Gomes, CTO of ULLINK.

Embedding the UL BRIDGE low-latency Smart Order Routing platform with the UL SMART Best Execution Engine, this "one-process" solution automates split-second routing decisions based on the broker's custom-designed execution policies. Per-client and per-category policies are devised by the broker using a graphical Policy Manager. The broker can select multiple execution channels in ULLINK's extensive library of plug-and-play connectors to the industry's favourite destinations, including other brokers, Exchanges, MTFs, and Systematic Internalisers.

"In the past, the European investment landscape was essentially driven by geography. The new regulation changed this: foreseeing the fragmented, pan-European, post-MiFID marketplace, brokers faced new challenges in terms of marketing and strategy. They needed to build an offer of service that could attract new clients with competitive fees, customised client relationships, and more execution venues. Concentrating on their marketing and strategy, they were looking for software solutions that brought superior results, and therefore superior attractiveness, while relieving them from the purely technical aspects of implementation in legacy environments. UL SMART achieved both and I was very pleased to see prominent brokers across borders prefer our solution," says Laurent Useldinger, CEO of ULLINK.

UL SMART is the latest addition to ULLINK's "one-stop shop" modular offer, which combines a connectivity platform offering 300 ready-to-trade destinations, a collaborative order management system, an advanced trading interface, algorithmic and program trading modules, a pre-trade risk management solution, DMA gateways and an order routing network with hundreds of members. ULLINK supports over 100 global clients across time zones and won industry applause with its exceptional level of service.