Research conducted by MillTech FX has revealed that many European corporates are now looking for platforms that allow them to see live rates from multiple banks and execute at the best rate, while also reducing the operational burden traditionally associated with this kind of market access.
Companies require more than just competitive pricing across products including swaps and options. The most successful single-dealer portals offer tools to help clients make sense of market structure and activity, such as pre-trade analysis so they can make informed decisions across large spot executions – especially to determine whether they are done through risk transfer or an execution algorithm.
“Flow metrics tools are important as they allow a client to understand what currencies or baskets different investor types are buying or selling,” says Alex Nowak, head of continental electronic fixed income sales at JPMorgan.
Laurent Descout, founder and chief executive of Neo, notes that improved API connectivity makes it easier for tech-savvy clients to connect to several single-dealer platforms at once, recreating the effect of a multilateral trading facility without obstacles such as having to book FX with a bank that will not make the final payment.
“Some