Innovation is bringing transparency and diversity to the FX market.
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A NEW ERA
As upheaval and scandal have increased scrutiny of the FX market, with regulators and market participants calling for greater fairness and transparency, innovative technological solutions have been leading the way in helping restore confidence in a new market landscape.
Recent innovations, including the emergence of liquidity aggregation and algorithmic trading techniques, have boosted interconnectivity between a greater number of market players, enabling a more widespread sharing of risk among market participants.
Electronic trading has made the FX market more dynamic, fragmented and competitive, with a broader range of end users, especially participants other than banks.
Global Finance used the OECD’s Oslo Manual of Innovation to help select banks, brokers, technology vendors and infrastructure providers for inclusion in the list.
CATEGORIES OF INNOVATION* |
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PRODUCT INNOVATIONA good or service that is new or signifi- cantly improved. This includes upgrades in technical specifications, components and materials, software, user friendliness or other functional characteristics. |
PROCESS INNOVATIONA significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes changes in techniques, equipment and/or software. |
MARKETING INNOVATIONA marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing. |
ORGANIZATIONAL INNOVATIONA new method in business practices, workplace structure or external relations. |
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*From the OECD Oslo Manual Of Innovation |
CLICK TO VIEW THE INNOVATORS OF FOREIGN EXCHANGE
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Section: Banks & Brokers | Technology Vendors & Infrastructure Providers
THE INNOVATORS – BANKS AND BROKERS
Firm |
Solution |
Category |
What makes it innovative |
|---|---|---|---|
|
AGEA |
WebTrader |
Process innovation |
A responsive Web browser trading application that dynamically changes user interface according to the device the user is accessing it from. WebTrader currently allows forex, commodity and index trading with alerts from a market events calendar, integrated chat with online traders and multilingual live support. WebTrader is available in nine languages and accessible from any device. |
|
Alfa Bank |
Alfa Forex Split- Value Conversion |
Marketing innovation |
FX conversion with a deferred payment option through the use of its unique trading information and settlement platform, Alfa Forex. The cus- tomer can buy or sell foreign currency on a cashless basis with deferred payment. Customers can receive funds on the deal today, with their obligations to the bank discharged in one or two business days. |
|
Attijariwafa Bank |
Renminbi Settlements/ Payments |
Process, market- ing and organiza- tional innovation |
Previously, most client transactions with Chinese suppliers were settled in US dollars rather than African currencies. Attijariwafa Bank and the Bank of China will provide strong support with competitive FX rates and tailor-made solutions on the remninbi quoted against African currencies. Clients can benefit from both cost reduction and FX risk mitigation. |
|
BLOM Bank |
Recent integra- tion of all its FX, capital markets, commodities and securities dealing under one roof |
Organizational innovation |
Creating synergies in the cross-selling of services to clients and at the same time facilitating better service levels. New intermediaries and exist- ing relations have been renegotiated to maintain a competitive edge. At the internal organizational level, staff expertise has been exchanged and knowledge levels upgraded. |
|
BNP Paribas |
Centric |
Product innovation |
A corporate FX platform rolled out across 10 countries in Asia-Pacific and the Middle East, and in North and South America. It is currently being rolled out in Europe. Centric delivers a range of newly-created applica- tions and services to corporate treasurers in more than 30 countries. |
|
Commercial International Bank |
FX desk |
Organizational Innovation |
Restructuring of the bank’s FX desk into distinct customer segments such as corporate banking, global customer relations and business banking. Traders are responsible for following up and executing deals with their respective assigned officers and/or clients. Elevated service levels are further facilitated by the ability to provide ready-made offers for available FX-structured products to clients. |
|
Deutsche Bank |
Autobahn OTC Structures |
Product/process innovation |
A fully electronic platform for pricing and dealing in structured deriva- tives in currencies and precious metals. The platform provides transpar- ent competitive pricing and fully-customizable deal details giving clients total control over pricing. A self-service and intuitive user interface allows for easy deal variations, multiple repricings. with dealable prices returned by the system in near real-time. |
|
Dukascopy Bank |
Dukascopy Connect and Dukascopy Payments |
Product/process innovation |
Dukascopy Payments is an independent platform for transferring money online using Dukascopy’s Connect mobile communication service. Connect users are able to attach money to any message and to send it to another person across the globe. The phone number of a beneficiary becomes a key payment attribute. The new service allows users to top up an eWallet account from credit cards, and to make money transfers from an eWallet to any bank account. Dukascopy Payments also offers favorable currency exchange rates. Accounts can be opened electroni- cally and instantly on the basis of remote client identification (via the provision of ‘selfies’ with ID). |
|
ICAP |
Everything EBS |
Product/process innovation |
The integrated trading platform amalgamates EBS ‘microstructures’ with advanced trading algorithms and integrated visual analytics. Features include: aggregated views of multiple liquidity sources and types with attribution; diverse product support, including spot, precious metals, NDFs, outrights, swaps; enhanced pricing views; market depth; cus- tomized trading views and multiple displays to accommodate trader workflow. |
|
mBank |
Digital Treasury |
Product/process innovation |
Improved offer and software for SMEs and corporates, particularly in for- eign exchange, including simplification of pre-sales, sales and after-sales processes. The FX platform enables small and medium-sized custom- |
|
Saxo Bank |
SaxoTraderGO |
Product innovation |
SaxoTraderGO offers retail clients access to the bank’s entire product suite; more than 30,000 different instruments across FX, stock options and futures, as well as a powerful new HTML5 chart. The platform is fully aligned across desktop, mobile and tablet devices. |
Firm |
Solution |
Category |
What makes it innovative |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Barracuda FX |
Order Hub |
Product innovation |
Order Hub enables a bank to electronically pass orders from a single destination to any counterparty regardless of whether the receiving bank uses Barracuda software. The technology is built on a service-oriented architecture and includes a choice of user interfaces. It can be hosted internally or externally via Software as a Service (SaaS). |
|
City Index |
Mobile Trading Widget |
Product/process innovation |
A real-time, mobile trading widget, which aligns trading activity with the diary function on smartphones. |
|
Coinsetter and Shift Forex |
Bitbroker |
Product/process innovation |
A new bitcoin liquidity and market data service for foreign exchange brokers. Bitbroker enables forex brokers to add Bitcoin as a trading option within existing margin FX infrastructures. |
|
Digital Reasoning |
Synthesys |
Product innovation |
By semantically analyzing all electronic communications in order to understand who is talking to whom, and what about, Digital Reasoning helps banks to identify potential collusion and manipulation of FX markets in order to avoid the next regulatory and/or reputational crisis. |
|
Fortex |
Fortex MT4 Web Trader |
Product innovation |
Fortex MT4 Web Trader’s responsive HTML5 design allows easy access to a client’s MT4 account without the need to install any software. Users can view and trade from their account anywhere, anytime, using any browser. |
|
FXCM |
FXCM Trading Station |
Process innovation |
The station features real volume indicators, which provides traders with critical market data directly, as well as the ability to analyze market behavior and trading psychology by displaying what the crowd is doing. |
|
Gold-i |
Gold-i Bridge |
Process innovation |
An intelligent tool available within the Gold-i Bridge dynamically limits the number of price updates to the broker’s MT4 server, thereby minimizing price feed latency. It was developed in-house by Gold-i in the UK to enhance execution and server performance for MT4 brokers using aggregated feeds. |
|
Kantox |
Dynamic Hedging |
Product innovation |
Dynamic Hedging fully automates FX hedging strategies. Users just need to set up rules and then Dynamic Hedging executes the strategy. |
|
Leverate |
BX8 |
Product innovation |
A retooled version of a binary options platform featuring gamification tools, including popular trading games, clear payout displays and instant and scheduled expiry time frames. |
|
Lucera |
Lucera Connect |
Product innovation |
Lucera Connect is a software-defined network with no bandwidth restrictions. |
|
MahiFX |
MFX Compass |
Product Innovation |
Helps smaller banks and brokers break through high entry barriers to compete at a level that was previously inaccessible to them. MFX Compass also offers a highly advanced risk management system for protecting against market volatility. |
|
OANDA |
OANDA API Suite |
Product innovation |
Enhancements include a fully functional sample trading app, additional code samples, new application programming interfaces for the broker’s proprietary fxLabs tools, an OANDA-MetaTrader 4 API, and several new partner integrations for retail forex traders, developers, and partners. |
|
Portware FX |
Portware Enterprise |
Product innovation |
A fully customizable trade management and execution system for single stock, portfolio, basket, automated and algorithmic trading. It automates the selection of optimal trading strategies in real-time. |
|
Quotix |
Quotix Insight |
Product innovation |
Software that utilizes intelligent algorithms to manage the market risk of retail FX brokers. Quotix Insight allows clients to make automated book decisions in real-time that mitigate risk whilst increasing revenues. |
|
R3 Analytics |
Risk management upgrade |
Product/process innovation |
An updated and enhanced Cloud-based offering for brokers. It offers forex brokers customizable optimization strategies and risk-management tools, deep analytical insights into trading accounts, and easy access to business and sales intelligence aggregated from brokers’ trade servers. |
|
SETL |
Digital Ledger: Blockchain-based system for FX transactions |
Process innovation |
The SETL system enables market participants to move cash and assets directly between one another, facilitating immediate and final settlement of transactions. The SETL blockchain is designed so that the identity of participants can be requested to ensure trust in the system. |
|
Thomson Reuters |
FX Trading |
Product innovation |
FX Trading offers the full value of Thomson Reuters’ entire FX portfolio, including FX dealing, matching, electronic trading and post-trade |
|
USForex |
Forex Money Transfer |
Process innovation |
Forex Money Transfer enables consumers on the go to send money in 48 currencies to friends, family and merchants around the world via their tablet or smartphone. |
|
ZuluTrade |
Introduction of social trading on binary options |
Process Innovation |
Social trading on binary options enables customers to copy the top-performing binary options traders on this peer-to-peer FX platform. |
