IHS Markit announced this Wednesday that its post-trade derivatives processing business MarkitSERV has teamed up with Cobalt to deliver new post-trade processing services for the foreign Exchange (Forex ) markets.
The cost of post-trade processing for the forex industry amounts to billions of dollars each year. For years industry participants have been looking at ways to lower this cost through automation and individual solutions.
It appears that the partnership announced today is one of the latest attempt to find a way to reduce this burden. Under the agreement, IHS Markit has made a strategic investment in Cobalt, and it will partner with the company to sell and deliver the new solution once it is ready.
MarkitSERV and Cobalt solution to replace legacy technology
According to the statement, the new solution that MarkitSERV and Cobalt will offer will be designed to replace legacy technology and manual processes. Together the companies will offer shared post-trade infrastructure, with the aim to reduce operational risks of the forex market and bring increased efficiency.
Already MarkitSERV and Cobalt’s systems have been integrated, allowing trade data from MarkitSERV’s network of more than 800 FX counterparties and venues to flow into the Cobalt platform.
Commenting on the collaboration, Chris Leaver, the managing director and head of FX at MarkitSERV said: “This collaboration marks the start of a major transformation in FX infrastructure."
“The majority of the FX industry is already integrated with the MarkitSERV network and we now offer the community turn-key access to the Cobalt platform and the opportunity to radically streamline post-trade workflows. This partnership is a natural extension of MarkitSERV’s core strategy of centralizing and normalizing post-trade processing across all asset classes.”
Adrian Patten
Source: Copa Fin Ltd
“Joining forces with IHS Markit will allow us to rapidly scale our solution and deliver a state-of-the-art shared middle and back office infrastructure to the global FX community, dramatically improving efficiency across the board,” continued Adrian Patten, co-founder and chairman, at Cobalt.
“For too long, FX has been burdened by an aging, inefficient post-trade environment. Our high-performance technology has been designed to replace legacy infrastructure and inefficient processes, as well as significantly slash cost and risk for this five trillion dollar a day market,” he added.
