Through the partnership, Thomson Reuters will offer seamless connectivity to the independent transaction cost analysis (TCA) service from BestX from its FXall and FX Trading desktops. Thomson Reuters customers will be able to have their trades sent automatically to BestX for independent post-trade transaction cost analysis, and also benefit from single sign-on desktop integration.

As MiFID II and the implementation of the Global FX Code of Conduct define the future behaviour and obligations of all market participants, there is an increasing need for buy-side institutions such as asset managers, wealth advisors and corporates to demonstrate best execution. The BestX FX Best Execution Analytics application provides customers with interactive reports that include a range of performance metrics designed for the specific characteristics of the FX market including spread cost, impact cost, performance against specific benchmarks, post-trade revaluations, implementation shortfall, and signaling risk. It also provides a single point of analysis for trades executed across all transaction venues, using consistent methodology and benchmark data regardless of execution source.

“Thomson Reuters recognises the very specific needs of the FX buy-side for transaction cost analysis and for this reason we have been really impressed with the BestX analytics which are unique in this space,” says Neill Penney, co-head of Trading at Thomson Reuters. “Our open platform approach means we are able to connect BestX with our FXall and FX Trading platforms, bringing our customers improved capabilities while eliminating the integration work they would otherwise have to perform themselves.”

As part of the agreement, BestX will also adopt Thomson Reuters leading FX market data to calibrate and power the proprietary models in the BestX FX Analytics platform.

Co-Founders and Directors of BestX, Pete Eggleston and Oliver Jerome, believe this strategic partnership creates a unique proposition in this space: “The combination of our real-time analytics suite with the Thomson Reuters data set provides an extremely powerful offering for computing best execution performance metrics in FX” said Pete Eggleston. Oliver Jerome added: “Thomson Reuters recognises the value of offering specialised and independent Best Execution analytics to its FX customers. And by using Thomson Reuters market-leading data to power our analytics, we can now deliver the highest quality of analysis utilising an unparalleled breadth and depth of market data.”

The partnership will see Thomson Reuters take a minority equity stake in BestX and have a representative on the BestX Board.