CLS Group and Traiana, an Icap company (IAP.L), announced today that Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS) has become the latest bank to support their joint venture which is set to provide trade aggregation services to participants active in the over-the-counter FX market.
The joint venture was initially announced in April 2009 between CLS Group, the global industry standard for FX settlement services, and ICAP, the world's leading interdealer broker.
Goldman Sachs joins a founder group of seven banks that have committed support to the joint venture comprising Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), Credit Suisse (NYSE:CS), Citigroup (NYSE:C), Deutsche Bank (XETRA: DBKGn.DE / NYSE: DB), J.P. Morgan (NYSE:JPM), Morgan Stanley (NYSE:MS) and Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L).
As FX continues to grow as an asset class, this initiative will help to address the rapid increase in volumes by an expanding community including hedge funds, algorithmic traders, and retail and institutional participants. The joint venture will enable a reduction in operational risk, reduce post trade costs and both rationalise and consolidate legacy post-trade processes throughout the global FX markets.
Traiana, an ICAP company, is providing the technology infrastructure to the venture using its market-standard Traiana Harmony network which will be rolled out to participating firms following regulatory approval.
Rob Close, Chief Executive Officer of CLS Group and President and CEO of CLS Bank International said: "The addition of Goldman Sachs demonstrates the continued and widespread industry support for the service and I am delighted by the expansion of the founder group of banks. This further expansion in participation reinforces the service proposition and scale of benefits for the group."
Gil Mandelzis, Traiana's Chief Executive Officer said: "Goldman Sachs is an important and welcome addition to the initiative. We are all engaged in re-designing the post-trade landscape."