Thomson Still Hopes For GSTPA Participation

Thomson Financial ESG still has hope that it will be able to partake in the GSTPA's Transaction Flow Manager (TFM) project.

Thomson Financial ESG still has hope that it will be able to partake in the GSTPA's Transaction Flow Manager (TFM) project. Thomson had been involved in thebidding process through the first step, but bowed out before the request forinformation was due on August 24. Lee Cutrone, executive managing director, saysThomson was trying to figure out how to protect its intellectual property whilestill being a part of the project.

He notes, "The project is not set up for a commercial business." He adds thatThomson is all for interoperability and connectivity, but it has an existingclient base and a business and it can't see turning that over to the GSTPA underthe terms it would have to follow at this stage.

He admits that Thomson was in discussions to be part of the S.W.I.F.T. consortiumuntil the very last day before the RFI was due. Thomson then wrote a letter to theGSTPA explaining why the vendor could not partake at this time. Despite, bowingout, Thomson reps Cutrone and Chris Walsh, director of global businessdevelopment, both attended a bidders-only party at the Ratskeller on Wednesday atthe Sibos conference in Munich. Thomson plans to continue conversations with S.W.I.F.T. and the GSTPA to see if there is a way to partake under a new model.

Indeed, S.W.I.F.T. is still hoping for it as Leonard Schrank, CEO of S.W.I.F.T.stuck his head into the interview room looking for Cutrone, commenting that hewanted to "get this thing rolling again." Cutrone confirmed that he was talkingabout getting together to try to come up with a plan.

Cutrone notes that there will have to be some sort of interoperability and the TFMwill not be the only hub. "Even the GSTPA is planning to have several hubs, one inthe U.S. for domestic trades, one in London for European trades, and others arelikely. Why couldn't Thomson's system be yet another hub that connects?" he says.He adds that Thomson's clients are already using and paying for the Thomson systemto match trades, and questions why they would want to pay for the GSTPA's serviceas well. Whatever prevails, Cutrone says he is confident that Thomson will worksomething out with the GSTPA.