Transaction Network Services (TNS) has expanded its international network with a new point-of-presence (POP) in Bermuda.
Via TNS' proprietary IP network, the Secure Trading Extranet, traders in Bermuda will be able to connect to over 1,000 financial community end-points representing over 400 buy and sell-side institutions, market data and software vendors, exchanges and alternative trading venues around the world.
Existing customers of the Secure Trading Extranet will be able to access Bermuda's lucrative financial markets to submit a variety of trade-related messages, including indications of interest, order routing, and trade executions, and carry out other Financial Information eXchange (FIX) and non-FIX transactions.
Alex Walker, VP financial markets (international) said: "The Bermudan economy has a long and important association with financial markets, and the development of e-commerce and telecommunications is key to the future of the island."
"The Secure Trading Extranet will advance existing connectivity options in and with Bermuda. In addition to transport of trades and trading-related-data via the Secure Trading Extranet, companies with offices in Bermuda will be able to use TNS' fully managed wide-area network service to connect to offices worldwide.
"A move to electronic trading and buy-side institutions taking control of execution via algorithmic trading and Direct Market Access (DMA) have meant that extranets are an attractive and cost-effective option for connecting to multiple trading partners internationally and to delivering minimal latency."
TNS' presence in Bermuda is part of the company's plans for expansion internationally. In the past 12 months, TNS has established operations in Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, expanded its network from 70 to 96 points of presence, and increased its network coverage from 11 to 25 countries in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.
The company is also supporting financial institutions in the move towards straight-through-processing by building on its IP network to provide a broader range of applications including wide area networks, market data distribution and trader voice services.
Alex Walker said: "Institutions in Bermuda will now be able to take advantage of access to a global network via a single managed connection, removing the need to manage multiple telcos or internet service providers and the time and costs involved with step changes to bandwidth.
"The Secure Trading Extranet is widely recognised to provide best-in-class latency. On-net institutions can be connected to each other within three days and uptime is maximised by never having a single point of failure.
Security is paramount and high-value transactions are protected using access validation, end-to-end encryption and secure points-of-presence."