Fixed-Income Trading-Systems Vendor Acquires Analytics Library

In an effort to beef up its over-the-counter (OTC) options-trading platform, Aurora Software -- a supplier of fixed-income-trading applications -- has purchased an analytics library from Cygnifi. The analytics library, which has already been integrated into Aurora's options-trading platform, is being offered to the vendor's OTC Treasury Options and OTC Market Options clients.

Neil Arora, chief-executive officer of Aurora, says the fixed-income vendor purchased the analytics library from Cygnifi as part of a bankruptcy sale; Cygnifi, an independent derivatives-services provider, originally created by J.P. Morgan, filed for Chapter 11 status on Oct. 3, 2001. While declining to provide specific figures, Arora describes the deal as a "cash transaction."

The analytics acquisition was motivated, at least in part, by demand from Aurora's options-trading customer base. "Over the last couple of years, there has definitely been a bigger focus on swaps ... and more of the volume has moved towards this market," says Arora. "There's more liquidity in this marketplace, and there is (also) a bigger demand for more analytics from the swaps side."

Though Aurora has incorporated the new analytics library into its OTC options-trading platform, it still is providing its clients with the ability to integrate their internally-generated analytics into the platform. "Some (customers prefer) to have their own proprietary analytics in our system," Arora explains.

Arora declines to break down the pricing structure for the analytics library. "We have different arrangements for our different clients ... (but some) clients will have to pay some upgrade fees for the analytics library," he says.