Sucden Financial is well on its way to diversify its offering, the company’s new Head of Business Development, Noel Singh shared in an exclusive interview with Finance Magnates. The company is looking to add access to several major ECNs to its offering.
Sucden Financial is working on adding a new technology provider which will enable connectivity to Currenex, Fastmatch, Hotspot and GAIN’s GTX. Clients will be provided with aggregated access to those ECNs. The company is also beta testing Cobalt DL which will also offer pre-trade risk functionality for access to ECNs.
Below is the full interview with the company's new Head of eFX Business Development.
What is driving current changes at Sucden Financial?
The change has been driven by increasing client demand. We have a lot of concentration in the retail space and certain geographical locations in that space. The business is sensitive to regulatory changes and we are looking to diversify our exposure and access different sectors of the market.
While our product has been described as eFX, we have transitioned it into a prime of prime (PoP) business. We are 100 percent straight through processing (STP) and we don't take any market risk on our eFX desk. Going forward we want to give our clients access to ECNs, in order to diversify the Liquidity and give clients more choice how to access the market.
We are branching out towards more institutional clients such as hedge funds, asset managers, proprietary trading firms, etc.
Retail FX brokers to gain more access
Will the changes affect retail broker clients of Sucden?
The changes that we are in the midst of can only benefit them. We are very committed to the technology that we are currently using. Our team is in the middle of installing a new technology provider which will provide more benefits to our clients and give us the ability to scale our growth.
Does Sucden plan to branch out from only FX products?
FX is a significant part of our much larger business. The commodities space has always been our bread and butter. We have interest in the futures and options space, which provides our clients with access to exchange traded derivatives.
Where do you see the biggest challenges for PoPs in this market?
For a new entrant its not just about joining the market because everyone else is joining the market. The provider needs to have a solid history and a solid balance sheet in order to give clients the security they need.
The prime provider also needs to understand the cost base of clients in order to appease them. An increase in fees a year down the line because a prime broker recalibrates its fees can damage the PoPs reputation.
We have direct relationships with our Liquidity Providers , which means that we don’t have prime brokerage fees in a lot of cases when we are taking liquidity. This gives us the flexibility of being less susceptible to changes in PB fees, which gives us a stable base to price our clients efficiently.
How do you see FX trading activity going forward?
There’s been a certain amount of volatility given recent events. We are a little concerned over systematic funds pulling away in light of the political risk events.
