Cobalt has announced yet another market participant to sign on to its foreign Exchange post-trade infrastructure, with Standard Chartered joining a growing list of large financial institutions to partner with the provider.
The purpose of Cobalt is to redesign post-trade Forex infrastructure and processes. To do this, the system’s automated technology matches all versions of a trade into one ‘trusted copy.’
By creating a trusted copy, the infrastructure generates one unchangeable data set of FX transactions. This is at odds with the current industry practice, where a single trade today creates multiple records for all parties. This leaves more room for error and inconsistencies throughout lifecycle events.
According to the statement released this Thursday, the signing of Standard Chartered, which is an emerging market bank, will allow more market participants to access Cobalt’s forex infrastructure.
Commenting on the announcement, Gareth James, Macro Trading COO at Standard Chartered, said in the statement: “As a global FX participant we realise the need for market standardisation."
“Within emerging markets, harmonising and centralising post-trade will mean greater efficiency. Cobalt’s technology solution delivers increased automation, which will allow us to not only realise cost savings but gain crucial credit management efficiencies with our counterparties, which is key for our emerging markets.”
Cobalt’s growing list of partnerships
Standard Chartered joins a growing list of market participants to partner with Cobalt. As Finance Magnates reported, Sucden Financial signed with Cobalt less than two weeks ago.
Other firms who have teamed up with Cobalt include Citibank, which went live on its infrastructure for bilateral trading, as well as Deutsche Bank, XTX Markets, and Saxo Bank.
Darren Coote - CEO of Cobalt
Darren Coote, CEO of Cobalt, added in the statement: “This latest addition to Cobalt’s network being one of the world’s major emerging market banks, with Standard Chartered, the network is continuing to diversify with the full scope of FX market participants."
“As the network grows, real-time cost savings will be realised by all our clients, and due to the central management of post-trade our clients can start to layer additional optimisation solutions that will have a positive impact on balance sheet usage.”
