Ak Investment, the brokerage arm of the leading Turkish financial institution Akbank, has joined the SunGard Global Network (SGN) to offer its trading services and research expertise on the Turkish capital markets.
SGN connects 2,000 asset managers with over 500 brokers worldwide.
Accessing SGN will help Ak Investment reach clients directly, add new connections in short timeframes and offer its Turkish market expertise to SunGard's user community, at a time of increasing international interest in Turkey. Offering electronic execution services through SGN will help Ak Investment reach new clients who wish to route order flow directly to exchanges, helping them improve execution speed, performance and order management.
Mehmet Taman, head of Institutional Sales & Trading for Ak Investment, said, "Connecting to SunGard's SGN was an obvious choice for Ak Investment as part of our strategy to be a leader in Turkish capital markets and the partner of choice of buy- and sell-side firms worldwide who want to trade in Turkey. The SunGard connectivity will be integrated with our existing trading infrastructure, helping us start to on-board clients immediately."
Philippe Carré, global head of connectivity for SunGard's global trading business, said, "Turkey is one of the most dynamic economies in Europe, and we are seeing growing demand from international clients for access to the Turkish capital markets, for trading and market data. We are pleased to expand our Turkish market connectivity offering and are committed to growth in our emerging markets connectivity. The SunGard Global Network will provide AK Investment with direct links to its international user community, helping it rapidly on-board clients and easily add new offerings, such as algorithms and derivatives trading."