The buy- and sellside can now confirm their equity trades via FIX protocol.
Fidessa, a financial services vendor, has opened its post-trade confirmation hub to both buy and sellsiders to confirm trades using the same messaging system already used in order routing. By using the same system, both parties can save time and money in the post-trade settlement process.
The new service enables firms to send and receive allocation and confirmation instructions to each other via an open, free-to-use protocol, according to Fidessa’s Steve Grob, director of group strategy. By using the same system, FIX, this removes the need for proprietary or other messaging system alternatives that charge on a per-message basis.
“Recent fragmentation into competing alternatives has simply made the whole process even more inefficient for market participants of all types,”Grob said. “We sat with key buysiders, worked with them to extend the FIX protocol and come up with a simpler process. Now firms can leverage their existing FIX infrastructure and pay a flat fee.”
Prior to this, firms paid a per message fee to conduct post-trade settlement. Historically, this process was manual and very expensive as several prop systems were used.
“Firms said we have FIX for order sending. Why can’t we use the same system for confirmations?” Grob said.
It took Fidessa one year to get this system in place and charges a small fee to upgrade for this new functionality.
