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The investment will accelerate FTEN's global expansion and offerings beyond the United States to Europe and Asia. The application service provider (ASP) is seeking to expand its risk management, compliance, high-frequency trading gateway and market data for multi-asset trading and multi-prime broker sponsored access in Europe and Asia, according to today's announcement.
The investment in FTEN is occurring at a time when hedge funds are moving away from a single prime brokerage model, and realizing the importance of having multiple prime brokers so they are not linked to the fortunes of one firm. At the same time, prime brokers that are providing their balance sheets and electronic execution solutions to hedge funds need to gain more control over intra-day risk management.
"Prime brokers will always be interested in having a real-time global view of what their risk exposure is to their clients, especially among high-frequency statistical arbitrage customers who typically leverage the prime broker's financing product and trade using automated black-box models," comments Antonio Reyes Miras, Head of Electronic Client Solutions for Cash Equities and Futures & Options at J.P. Morgan in London, who responded to questions submitted via email.
"One of the key products that FTEN brings to the table is its RX risk exposure suite, which provides the prime broker with a global view of everything that is going to a specific venue or destination in the name of a particular client, irrespective of who the executing broker is," explained Reyes Miras.
Several of the global prime brokers making the investment are already clients of FTEN. "We are in production with our clients today, " noted Reyes Miras. J.P. Morgan inherited the FTEN relationship as part of the merger with Bear Stearns, and is now working closely with FTEN and aims to offer this product in Europe before the end of the year.
