Of the leading multi-dealer sites that will serve the online foreign exchange market, only Currenex and State Street's Global Link FX Connect services are trading yet. Both Atriax and FXall are yet to complete testing, though both expect to be on stream in the very near future. Atriax and FXall are consortium sites, backed by many of the world's leading banks, but Currenex is independent. FXConnect started life as a single-dealer proprietary site but now incorporates additional banks to offer clients a multi-dealer platform.
FXConnect constitutes just one component of State Street's Global Link system. State Street also offers online solutions in equities, fixed income and futures, with all the asset classes handled by the Global Link trade-order management function. State Street executed its first online currency trade as long ago as August 1996, making it a relatively old hand in the field. At the time, the system was single-dealer. It now provides access to 23 banks for users, representing an unusual business model for the industry since it is not a single-dealer platform, an independent exchange nor a true consortium site. Global Link's management believes that its model offers the best of all worlds for its members.