Wallstreet Systems recently sent out a white paper written by McLagan (Z/YEN). This has attempted to provide a proper analysis to the true cost per trade and suggest a methodology for benchmarking straight-through-processing rates. The report was commissioned as part of Wallstreet’s marketing for its Electronic Settlement Network (ESN), which was announced in October.
Obviously, the report does help underpin the logic of ESN, but it also serves a wider purpose and makes interesting reading. “We wanted something to verify our value proposition. It’s the first stab in getting an industry-wide methodology approved,” says Tony White, managing director of Wallstreet Systems.
Wallstreet had found that there were wide discrepancies in how people measured their cost per trade. “Everybody was talking apples and oranges here. The big guys have been involved in studies and peer assessments, but once you get out of the Euromoney top 20, some banks were adding stuff in that others were leaving out and vice-versa. What we wanted to do was to come up with a correct methodology that anyone should apply when calculating this so they could compare like with like,” adds White.
The report will be discussed more fully in the January issue of Euromoney.