The corporate and investment bank of J.P. Morgan began the rollout Monday of a technical platform that is designed to consolidate 30 different trading systems into one.
The first wave of trading that will be conducted on the new system, called J.P. Morgan Markets, will be in foreign exchange, rates and commodities. Also included in the initial set of services will be -trade research and analytics, and a variety of post-trade services.
“By having a high degree of automation at every stage of a trade, clients will be able to focus on trading ideas rather than the increasing complexity of a post-regulatory world in trade execution, post-trade clearing, settlement and reporting, said Troy Rohrbaugh, global head of FX & Rates Trading, in announcing the start of the rollout.
J.P. Morgan Markets eventually will include all forms of electronic trading services offered by the bank, from front- to middle- to back-office. Most clients and products will be transferred onto the system by the end of 2013.
“By the end of this year, we will have consolidated more than 30 platforms into one client offering,” said Peter Cherasia, global head of Markets Strategies. “It will enable us to quickly deliver innovative new products as we adapt to changing market conditions.’’
After logging in once, Markets customers will be able to get research, analytics, trade exection for multiple types of securities and asset types, and post-trade services. Eventually, the system will include access to liquidity in many types of securities, as well as algorithms and access to trading venues.
“We have created J.P. Morgan Markets to give clients an intuitive user experience, and a convenient and efficient way to trade across different asset classes, all in one place,” said Rohrbaugh.
With $18 trillion of assets under custody and $393 billion in deposits, the J.P. Morgan Corporate & Investment Bank has spent more than $4 billion a year on technology.
A year ago, the bank transferred more than one million accounts onto a new broker-dealer platform, known as Morgan Communications or MORCOM. The online system serves both retail and institutional brokers.
That initiative as well as consolidation of systems s part of a Strategic Reengineering Program that, in effect, got its start with the May 2008 completion of the acquisition of Bear Stearns, the collapsed Wall Street investment bank.
