Standard Bank of South Africa Deploys TradAir’s eFX platform

TradAir, a provider of front office optimization solutions for financial institutions, announced today a new cooperation with Standard Bank South Africa (SBSA). The aim of the partnership is to improve SBSA’s two-day dollar-rand (USD/ZAR) market-making capabilities on a global scale.

The official press release states that TradAir will additionally help with increasing coverage in the field of major African currencies, implementing its services in all eighteen regional trading centers through the continent. Under the agreement, SBSA will also benefit from TradAir NOW, offering foreign exchange trading analytics in real time.

TradAir NOW was launched in early April 2016 and it leverages Google’s BigQuery cloud analytics service. The aim of the tool is to provide more detailed insights into the trading behavior of customers and the related trading metrics, following the need for brokers to understand complex data gathered from vast quantities of information.

SBSA is currently the largest African bank, generating high volumes in rand, local and major currencies. The institution serves commercial, institution and enterprise clients through a range of online currency trading tools.

Improving dollar rand market-making capabilities

Illit Geller, TradAir CEO, commented on the new partnership: "We have an excellent relationship with SBSA, and have worked closely with Tim and his highly experienced team of trading, technology and operations professionals to implement a solution, that supports their strategic global market-making ambitions. This is a great example of how TradAir can service the needs of large regional banks, enabling them to strengthen their market making capabilities and grow their client franchise, in an effective risk managed and profitable way.”

The use of analytical tools offered by TradAir allows the tracking of customers’ behavior in real-time in all execution channels and the performance of individual Liquidity Liquidity The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent The term liquidity refers to the process, speed, and ease of which a given asset or security can be converted into cash. Notably, liquidity surmises a retention in market price, with the most liquid assets representing cash.The most liquid asset of all is cash itself.· In economics, liquidity is defined by how efficiently and quickly an asset can be converted into usable cash without materially affecting its market price. · Nothing is more liquid than cash, while other assets represent Read this Term providers, whose services are used by SBSA. In addition, the bank will receive the ability the create pricing streams and hedging strategies for specific client groups.

Tim Hutchinson, Head of eFX trading at SBSA, said:“TradAir are a strategic platform for the SBSA group, and their customisable rate-engine and hedging solutions enable us to improve our dollar rand market-making capabilities. We plan to deploy TradAir to all 18 of our regional dealing centres across Africa, enabling each local operation to market-make in the core currencies. As a result, our clients will benefit from more competitive and robust pricing, whilst our auto-hedging strategies, means our Risk Management Risk Management One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, One of the most common terms utilized by brokers, risk management refers to the practice of identifying potential risks in advance. Most commonly, this also involves the analysis of risk and the undertaking of precautionary steps to both mitigate and prevent for such risk.Such efforts are essential for brokers and venues in the finance industry, given the potential for fallout in the face of unforeseen events or crises. Given a more tightly regulated environment across nearly every asset class, Read this Term is now more effective."

"In addition, leveraging TradAir’s real-time trade analytics engine enables us to gain deep insight into the trading behaviour of clients across all execution channels, and the relative performance of our liquidity providers. TradAir brings value both in terms of technology, and as a market expert partner," he added.