New York, London, Paris, St. Louis – October 29, 2025 – Exegy, a leading provider of market data and trading technology for the capital markets, today released Part II of its whitepaper series, The True Cost of Real-Time Market Data Infrastructure. The new report quantifies what it could potentially cost firms to build and maintain in-house FPGA-based market data feed handlers.
Key Findings:
Cost to build: Developing the first in-house FPGA feed handler costs firms approximately $5.35 million, with an additional $261,000 required per new venue. The complete North American Equities coverage (18 markets) would total close to $9.8 million dollars—over 5x more expensive than Exegy’s ultra-low latency FPGA feed handlers for the equivalent coverage ($1.8 million annually).
Maintenance: Supporting, optimizing, and managing FPGA feed handlers across 18 markets costs firms $4.59 million annually — more than 2x higher than Exegy’s ongoing managed service costs, including regular performance enhancements.
Time-to-market: Internal teams of four specialized FPGA engineers can spend over 3.5 years of engineering effort just to produce their first production-ready FPGA feed handler versus only 6 months with Exegy. Each additional venue adds 8–12 months of development and testing, extending total time-to-market for full North American coverage to 6.5 years — compared to ~20 months with Exegy.
Resource allocation: Firms that build internally divert high-value engineering resources away from differentiating trading strategies and long-term growth initiatives.
“These findings quantify what we’ve seen in the field for years,” said Laurent de Barry, Chief Product Officer at Exegy. “Firms that build FPGA infrastructure in-house often underestimate the true cost — not just in dollars, but in time, maintenance, and lost opportunity. Nexus embodies the alternative: a managed, FPGA-accelerated platform that delivers determinism and scalability without the overhead of building and maintaining it all yourself.”
The whitepaper’s findings come to life in Exegy Nexus, the company’s latest FPGA-enabled market data and trading platform. Nexus combines centralized processing with hardware acceleration to deliver ultra-low latency performance, 36% lower operational costs, and a significantly smaller server footprint.
By offloading critical market data processing to FPGAs within a compact 2U appliance and shifting additional data enhancements like book aggregation and filtering to a separate FPGA SmartNIC directly in the client server, firms gain the performance and scalability modelled in the research without the cost, time, or maintenance burden of developing in-house. Additionally, for firms looking to trigger orders at sub-300ns latency or to run custom pricing algorithm, Nexus leverages Exegy FPGA development framework to allow the deployment of user logic directly within the FPGA of the Nexus NIC.
Part II is available now for download. Part I, which focuses on software feed handlers, was released earlier this year and is also available on Exegy’s website. Together, the two reports quantify the real-world trade-offs between building and buying market data infrastructure — providing firms with a data-driven framework for smarter technology investment decisions.
As funding costs escalate, managing and mitigating collateral expenses has become a strategic imperative requiring firms to evaluate their activity across all derivative types and counterparties.
Looking at the cost of trading, liquidity ranked as having the highest impact for both futures and swaps, but differences emerged when analysing margin. Initial margin was number one for swap traders, but the margin period of risk (MPOR) was top of the list for uncleared swaps, lower for cleared swaps and at the bottom for futures.
MPOR is the time between the last exchange of collateral and when a defaulted counterparty’s positions are closed out and replaced. This period is critical because it’s the window during which market risk can cause the value of collateral to become insufficient to cover the loss from the defaulting party’s positions.
Some expenses though were easier to reduce than others. For example, liquidity the study noted liquidity costs could be managed to some extent via ongoing transaction cost analysis (TCA), but the ability to lower margin costs was greatest when trading instruments with offsetting risks. This assumed that the instruments are cleared and can be cross margined in an efficient way.
“It is certainly a balancing act, said Stephen Bruel, Senior Analyst on the Market Structure & Technology team and author of the report. “Offsets are not the sole reason to clear through a particular CCP, but our research indicates that it is becoming an increasingly important consideration.”
The report notes that collateral desks employ different strategies for helping manage margin costs. For some, that may mean using a collateral optimisation algorithm when selecting collateral. This approach does not affect the amount of collateral owed. Instead, it determines which collateral is cheapest to deliver to a particular counterparty.
For instance, selecting cash or a particular US Treasury bond based on the fund’s current holdings, interest rates and other factors will help mitigate some—but by no means all—collateral costs, one can look to find offsetting positions and cross-margin those positions against each other.
A more popular way – by 94% of respondents is to offset the margin requirements for different but related financial products, such as USD interest rate swaps and futures. This can result in significant savings on initial margin, which has been labelled as expensive. In addition, minimising the amount of collateral needed to cover risk means cross-margining can be used for other purposes, such as generating alpha or funding other activities.
However, the study notes that for cross margining to work, instruments need to be cleared with the same futures clearing merchant (FCM), either at the same CCP or at separate CCPs with a cross-margining arrangement.
Respondents also do not seem wedded to a particular CCP with 93% willing to change if the margin offsets are greater than the CCP basis. This refers to the price differential between identical swaps contracts cleared at various CCPs.
This basis can be impacted by differing collateral costs, positioning, and netting opportunities between them. A particular focus is pricing differences between USD interest-rate swap contracts cleared at LCH compared to CME Group.
For some, the report notes the size and volatility with this basis drove participants to clear a majority of USD swaps at LCH. Recently, however, the CME Group – LCH basis has narrowed and become less volatile.
In fact, the report cites data from CME which shows that savings from their portfolio-margining programme between swaps and interest-rate futures and options on futures set a record in the first half of 2025, up approximately 12% from the daily savings realised during the same period last year. This translated into an $8 bn in daily margin savings.
The demand for these types of capital efficiencies is expected to increase with upcoming clearing mandates as margin costs take centre stage. However, if the CCP basis remerges as a force, then the calculation could, of course, change.
Market participants expect though a new era to be ushered in with the Securities and Exchange Commission mandatory clearing of US Treasuries and repo. The objective of the legislation, which is being phased in from September 2025 to June 2027, is to enhance market transparency, reduce counterparty risk and increase the intermediation capacity of dealers. https://www.jpmorgan.com/insights/markets-and-economy/markets/us-treasury-clearing-mandate).
“Our recent research into the clearing of Treasuries and repo revealed that 70% of derivatives market participants believe the most important attribute of a U.S. Treasury and repo clearinghouse is “cross-margining efficiencies,” according to the report.
Buy-side traders in the FX market are facing pressure to deliver best execution while navigating credit constraints, shrinking margins, and increasingly complex workflows. At the same time, new technologies are promising to reshape how institutional FX gets done. In this interview with Traders Magazine, Jay Moore, LMAX Group‘s Global Head of Swaps and Derivative Products, discusses the trends transforming buy-side FX trading, why the traditional prime brokerage model is under strain, and how firms can scale their operations without sacrificing execution quality or piling on operational risk.
Jay Moore
What are the most important trends you’re seeing right now in buy-side FX?
The three major trends we’re keeping an eye on at LMAX Group are all aimed at solving the chronic challenges of credit, scale and transparency in buy-side workflows.
First is creating separation between pricing and credit so buy-side clients can access full amount liquidity from their preferred LPs across any execution protocol (RFQ, Benchmark Fixing Orders, Algos, etc.) without the need to split orders due to broker-specific restrictions at the fund level – resulting in operational risk and inconsistent pricing.
Second is next-generation automation. This includes smart order routing and algos moving beyond spot into forwards, swaps, and NDFs, accompanied by Transaction Cost Analysis (TCA) that captures leakage and market impact, not just a point-in-time snapshot.
Third is being native in the Order Management System (OMS)/Execution Management System (EMS) so desks can scale without piling on operational risk as the complex structure and size of their trading portfolio continue to expand.
What long-term impact do you expect tokenisation and instantaneous settlement (introduced through crypto) to have on traditional FX workflows and infrastructure?
In the long run, just as FX is paving the way for crypto trading workflows, crypto’s market structure playbook becomes FX’s roadmap. As crypto workflows normalize on FX desks, we’ll see traditional FX players migrate toward tokenized rails and much shorter, ultimately near‑instant settlement, with collateral and credit models redesigned for that reality. Rather than a single giant leap, it will be a steady piece-by-piece transition that modernizes the pipes without breaking familiar workflows.
Is the traditional prime brokerage model sustainable for the buy-side, or do you see decentralised credit intermediation becoming the norm?
The market is moving to decouple price from settlement. The traditional prime brokerage model has always presented a challenge for the buy-side due to credit concentration and fund-imposed broker restrictions.
As a result, ISDA-based credit intermediation is becoming the norm. Banks are increasingly adopting credit intermediation to grow volumes by leveraging their buy-side client onboarding efforts while monetizing available balance sheet capacity. This approach enables their clients to access improved pricing with their preferred liquidity providers (LPs) while settling trades through existing approved brokers at the account level – simplifying operational challenges and enhancing best execution.
With increasing regulatory focus on best execution and transparency, how might the FX market structure change to support fairer and more accessible liquidity?
We’re seeing a proper credit layer sit on top of diverse liquidity pools, so that the buy-side can access fairer and more accessible liquidity. It enables the buy-side to access the best price consistently across accounts without the need to slice orders based on broker restrictions. For example, by allowing a buy-side trader to RFQ for the full amount across multiple banks, they stand to achieve better execution with consistency across accounts, and the sell-side benefits from improved risk management through complete order visibility.
This will result in richer spot/forwards/swaps data and TCA that captures pre‑ and post‑trade effects, including leakage and impact, not just point‑in‑time, to ensure best execution. Current point-in-time TCA is insufficient for proving best execution, particularly in the swaps market, where rolling cycles are often predictable to banks.
Do you see convergence between asset classes accelerating, and how might that influence how asset managers structure their trading desks?
Asset class convergence is accelerating, primarily driven by the integration of digital assets. Digital asset adoption is a significant catalyst. Because trading BTCUSD is operationally similar to trading traditional currency pairs, crypto trading is initially being handled by FX desks.
This initial landing suggests that, from an infrastructure perspective, asset managers will likely position themselves to handle digital assets as another instrument on their existing, familiar FX workflows and platforms.
In the future, this convergence and the potential for instantaneous settlement from digital assets will likely push FX to adopt tokenized instruments, influencing the broader market structure for all asset classes.
Stablecoins are a perfect example of this convergence. Despite being managed entirely on blockchains, these assets look, feel, and perform remarkably like their fiat counterparts. Stablecoins are the entry point for institutional counterparties to deal with tokenized assets.
Soon, we can expect to see institutions trading in stablecoins backed by multiple fiat currencies, money market funds, and other cash-like instruments, inducing demand for new forms of tokenized assets. Asset managers will structure their desks to leverage platforms that can seamlessly extend their credit and liquidity solutions from traditional FX into the new digital asset space.
What role will interoperability between OMS/EMS platforms and execution venues play in achieving true all-to-all access for institutional FX participants?
The OMS is the cockpit for the buy-side trading process. Interoperability means that the execution venue is a native and fundamental part of the OMS/EMS architecture.
This is vital because buy-side firms will be loath to adopt any solutions that require them to change their workflows and introduce operational risk. By ensuring the execution platform is fully integrated with the
OMS, buy-side traders can easily transition between order management and order execution. By introducing a credit intermediation layer within the execution process that sits between the buy-side trader and the market, their access to a far broader library of liquidity expands significantly. This structure creates the foundation for all-to-all liquidity across all instruments, allowing institutional participants to access any LP regardless of their bilateral credit restrictions.
How do you see buy-side FX trading models evolving over the next 5 years, especially given the ongoing pressure on execution quality and shrinking margins?
Overall, buy-side FX trading models will evolve to become significantly more automated and data-driven, addressing the need for scale without sacrificing best execution.
● Advanced automation: we’ll see a shift to automating operational trades that add negligible value to the trader yet remain structurally important. Algorithm adoption will expand dramatically beyond spot into forwards, swaps and NDFs. The decision will be driven by data validating the benefits of algos over traditional risk transfer or vice versa.
● Intelligent execution: trading desks will use sophisticated tools for smart order routing built on richer TCA data and historical LP performance. This will allow them to choose the optimal counterparties for an RFQ based on size, direction and currency pair, without leaking information by asking too many banks for a price.
● Credit-agnostic access: the primary driver will be the ability to execute trades in full amount, with the liquidity provider of choice, regardless of existing credit relationships, using solutions such as credit intermediation. This removes the operational limitation of slicing orders, finally allowing the buy-side to access truly global best prices and scale their business to handle growing assets under management.
By Martina Rejsjö, Vice President, Product Management, Eventus
Martina Rejsjö
The rise of fractional share trading marks a critical inflection point for market structure. By lowering the minimum effective ticket size, fractionalization has intensified retail participation, altered liquidity formation dynamics and introduced new layers of execution complexity, particularly in internalized order flow.
Traditional surveillance frameworks encompassing round-lot logic and fixed trading sessions were never designed to capture this level of granularity, velocity and structural nuance. As the industry embraces innovations like 24-hour trading, these operational gaps will only widen. Tempting as it may be to downplay the significance of these small sizes, doing so would be a mistake. FINRA guidance makes clear that firms executing fractional orders are held to the same standards of supervision, best execution and reporting as they are for whole shares.
Much like the algorithmic trading boom two decades ago, fractionals are redefining what effective trade surveillance requires. The core principles remain, but the parameters, scale and points of control are changing rapidly. It adds up to a stress test for the assumptions that have underpinned surveillance for decades.
Future-Proofing Surveillance for Fractionals
The core challenge in fractional trade surveillance is making the shift from viewing activity in terms of share quantities to evaluating transactions in terms of notional value. Built for a whole-share world, legacy surveillance systems assume fixed quantities and price increments. When investors can purchase $20 of Berkshire Hathaway or $5 of Tesla, however, order sizes lose their traditional meaning. A tiny fraction of a share can represent significant notional exposure – or, conversely, almost none. Without the ability to toggle seamlessly between notional and quantity-based views, firms risk missing manipulative behavior, underestimating its impact or failing to properly escalate alerts.
What makes this shift so difficult is the need for decimal precision. Proper surveillance of fractional trading depends on the ability to process trades down to multiple decimal places. Many legacy systems were not built for this level of detail because, until recently, there was little use case for it. Today, both fractional equities and crypto markets trade in sizes far more granular than traditional two-decimal equity pricing. If a surveillance engine cannot accurately ingest, process and visualize these tiny trade increments, critical activity can fall below its detection threshold.
Another challenge of surveilling fractional shares is that many transactions never reach the lit market. These are often retail orders internalized by broker-dealers, meaning that a larger share of surveillance responsibility sits inside the firm, elevating the importance of internal controls. It also places heavier reliance on data quality and auditability – two areas where legacy platforms often struggle.
Finally, the liquidity profile of fractional activity introduces new sensitivities. Many retail-driven fractional orders are routed during off-peak hours or thinly traded periods. In these environments, small sizes can have outsized price impact or distort signals in ways that would be negligible during normal market conditions. Surveillance models must be configurable enough to account for these shifting circumstances and dynamically recalibrate thresholds to avoid both gaps and false positives.
A Foundation for What’s Next: Overnight Trading, Crypto and Beyond
Surveilling fractionals isn’t a discrete priority – it’s an investment in the next frontier of trading. In time, the structural complexities of monitoring fractional activity will be exacerbated by the shift to 24/5 and eventually 24/7 trading, stretching the challenge across multiple time zones and more diverse liquidity environments. Thinner markets and wider spreads magnify the importance of small orders – and the impact of manipulation. Firms that lack flexible, notional-aware surveillance risk blind spots in precisely the areas where market abuse can flourish.
Digital assets already offer a preview of this future. In crypto markets, fractional shares, granular decimalization and continuous global trading are the norm, setting a practical benchmark for what equities may soon resemble. Surveillance capabilities that can effectively monitor fractional equities today will offer a natural bridge to monitoring digital assets tomorrow, and vice versa. As more broker-dealers expand into crypto or run hybrid desks, a unified, flexible surveillance layer will become an ever more pressing operational necessity.
Looking further ahead, innovations in tokenized assets and prediction markets will make these demands even more pronounced. These instruments combine fractionalization, digital execution and novel liquidity patterns that fall outside the assumptions embedded in many legacy systems. Firms that invest in fractional-ready surveillance will be positioned not only to meet today’s regulatory expectations but also to onboard future asset classes seamlessly, without being forced to rebuild their surveillance architecture from the ground up.
From Fractional Complexity to Competitive Advantage
Firms don’t need to reinvent surveillance entirely, but they do need to adapt their core frameworks to new liquidity realities, new execution patterns and new data requirements. Flexible, fractional-ready surveillance isn’t just a way to keep up; it’s how firms can stay ahead in an increasingly competitive market.
By implementing these capabilities now, firms can address their fractional surveillance needs today while positioning themselves to support innovative new market models tomorrow.
New York, NY, 10/28/2025 – Pave Finance, Inc. (“Pave”), the next-generation wealth management platform, has today announced its integration with Charles Schwab, the world’s largest registered investment advisory custodian and one of the largest retail brokerage firms. The move enables registered investment advisors (RIAs) to link their Schwab client accounts directly to Pave for automated portfolio construction, management, and trading, all without moving a single client asset.
By deploying automation and removing operational friction, advisors now have the ability to deliver personalized, risk-managed portfolios that scale effortlessly, saving up to 18 hours per week1 without compromising performance.
As the wealth management industry is projected to double in size2 over the next decade, independent RIAs are rapidly gaining market share. Pave’s integration with Charles Schwab represents a major step forward in empowering independents to compete with Wall Street giants, capturing a larger share of a growing market through scalable automation and personalization.
Pave’s proprietary Asset Intelligence Layer and optimization engine, self-proven over more than a decade, has also consistently outperformed the S&P 500 by an average of 285 basis points annually.3 With the Schwab platform providing access to more than 15,000 RIA firms managing more than $4.2 trillion in assets, these firms can now seamlessly leverage Pave’s market-leading technology to improve outcomes for their clients.
Christopher Ainsworth, Chief Executive Officer of Pave Finance, commented: “We’re thrilled to be extending our leading automated wealth management solutions to a new pool of users through this integration with Charles Schwab. With our frictionless and time-saving technology outperforming the returns of popular indices over the last decade, we believe Pave should be a tool in the arsenal of every RIA. Through this integration, we’re picking up momentum and bringing Pave one step closer to achieving this goal.”
Since the integration, 16 firms with a combined $16 billion in assets across 60,000+ client accounts have already adopted the Pave platform, demonstrating strong demand from forward-thinking RIAs.
Pave will be showcasing its innovative portfolio management platform at its third consecutive IMPACT®2025 conference, taking place from November 4 – 6, 2025, in Denver, Colorado.
About Pave Finance, Inc.
Pave Finance, Inc. is a leading provider of wealth management software and services that enable investment advisors to customize, personalize and automate portfolio construction, management, and trading. Pave Finance’s business units include: (i) Pave Labs, LLC, which provides a portfolio management software platform; (ii) Pave Securities, LLC, which is a fully-disclosed introducing broker-dealer; and (iii) Pave Investment Advisors, LLC, which is an SEC-registered investment advisor. Pave Finance’s business model derives three primary streams of revenue: (i) software licensing revenue, which is priced using a SaaS licensing model with users paying a monthly license fee; (ii) broker-dealer revenues including, trading, securities lending, and spreads on credit and debit balances; and (iii) investment advisory fees for the automated management of assets on a discretionary and non-discretionary basis. Pave Finance was founded in 2021 and is based in New York, New York.
As the leading buy-side-focused equities trading gathering in the U.S., Equities Leaders Summit is where strategies are shared, ideas are exchanged, and the future of trading is shaped.
Join us in Miami this January 26–28, 2026, to connect with senior heads of equities trading and analytics from the buy side and across the full trading ecosystem. Explore the full agenda here and see the key topics shaping the year ahead.
Equities Leaders Summit 2026 Highlights:
Join senior buy-side attendees representing leading asset managers, hedge funds, pension funds, wealth managers, and investment banks.
Participate in buy-side-driven sessions led by 20+ heads of equities trading and trading analytics to gain actionable insights for evolving your execution strategies and future-proofing your equities desk.
Experience unrivaled face-to-face networking with 400+ attendees, including major buy-side, sell-side, and cutting-edge technology providers
Key Sessions Include:
New Developments in Market Structure: Update from the SEC
The Pros & Cons of Building In-House AI Systems
Global Macro Predictions: 2026 and Beyond
Market Microstructure – Order Routing & Nuances of Different Markets
Elevating Your Approach to Liquidity Sourcing
Don’t miss this opportunity to join the most influential voices in equities trading at the ONLY event that brings the entire ecosystem under one roof.
Buy-Side can attend the event for free
Register here to secure your place at Equities Leaders Summit 2026!
The Americas Trading Conference 2025, hosted by FIX Trading Community, returns to @Ease 605 in New York City this fall for a full day of market insight, industry discussion, and networking. Taking place on Thursday, October 30th, the event will bring together leading voices from across the trading ecosystem to address key issues shaping the global markets.
Scott Govoni
According to Scott Govoni, Regional Director – Americas, FIX Trading Community, the goals of the event are simple but central to FIX’s mission. “There are two reasons we run events,” he explained.
“Whether it’s a full-day conference like the one on October 30th, or our regional meetings, networking events, or even our webinars and workshops, the purpose is always the same: first, to drive awareness and adoption of our standards and practices, and second, to encourage participation in our committees, subcommittees, and working groups, which is where the work actually gets done,” he said.
“As a standards body, it’s critical that we have an engaged community to not only identify but also address the challenges of the electronic trading industry. It’s equally important that we educate our membership on what has been done, what is being worked on, and what’s coming down the pike,” he told Traders Magazine.
This year’s conference will feature a one-stream agenda designed to keep attendees focused on a single conversation. “The one-stream approach keeps everyone together. There’s no having to choose between sessions or missing out. It’s one conversation, one community,” Govoni said, adding that community is at the heart of everything FIX does.
Building on the success of previous years, the 2025 edition aims to expand its reach while maintaining the quality and collaborative spirit FIX events are known for. “Prior to 2020, we had an excellent cadence of regional events in New York, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto,” said Govoni. “From 2022 to 2024, we held events solely in New York City. After holding regional meetings in both Boston and Chicago this year, we’re getting back to the pre-COVID frequency. We’re getting the band back together.”
The conference is expected to draw a diverse mix of attendees. “Our goal is to bring together a healthy mix, ranging from traders and portfolio managers down to FIX support folks, and everything in between,” Govoni said. “Our membership is comprised of buy-side, sell-side, exchanges, and vendors, and as such, we’ll have representatives from all industry participants.” Govoni expects buy-side attendees to make up about 25% of this year’s audience, a significant increase over past years.
The 2025 conference will feature around 30 speakers representing 28 firms, covering a range of timely and technically rich topics. Panels will include “Around-the-Clock Markets: The Road to 24/5 Trading,” which will explore how firms are adapting to support continuous markets and what it will take to build resilient, compliant workflows. Govoni calls this “the most anticipated panel” of the day. “It’ll be moderated by Larry Tabb, and there’s a lot of excitement about the prospect of continuous trading, but also the need for the FIX Trading Community to be involved in its implementation.”
Other sessions include “Digital Assets in Transition: Standards, Regulation, and the Role of FIX,”“The Impact of AI on Buy-Side Trading Efficiency,”“Fifty-Fifty: Navigating the New Balance Between Lit and Dark Markets,” and “Architecting for Volatility: Building Scalable, Resilient Trading Infrastructure.” Panels will also explore updates in U.S. Treasury clearing and the evolving role of FIX in enabling transparency, compliance, and interoperability across asset classes.
One of the day’s highlights will be the fireside chat, “Bridging Policy and Protocol,” featuring Jim Toes, President & CEO of the Security Traders Association (STA), and Jim Kaye, Executive Director of the FIX Trading Community. Govoni said this session represents a significant milestone.
“FIX and STA are two organizations that have been around for a long time, but there hasn’t been much coordination between them,” he explained. “I look at the STA as the policy-making arm of the financial industry, and I view the FIX Trading Community as the implementation arm, so it just makes sense for the two organizations to be in lockstep with each other.”
Networking will also be a key feature of the event, with ample opportunities to connect throughout the day. “We have networking breaks, lunch provided, and a drinks reception that follows,” said Govoni. For first-time attendees, his advice is simple: “take advantage of those moments”.
“This is a community-driven organization,” he said. “We’re all in this together. The more you engage, the more value you’ll get – not just for yourself, but for your firm and for the broader industry. This is where you meet the people who are shaping the standards that underpin global markets,” he stressed.
At its core, the Americas Trading Conference 2025 is about reconnection and progress, Govoni argued. “The FIX Protocol is like the nervous system of the markets. It’s free, open, and essential,” he said.
“It has to be looked after and modernized, and that only happens when people come together to collaborate. This event is about doing exactly that – getting the community back together and moving forward,” he concluded.
New York, NY, October 27, 2025 – SIFMA today issued the following statement from Charles DeSimone, SIFMA managing director, technology and operations, on SIFMA’s October 25, 2025 industry-wide business continuity test:
“SIFMA and its members remain focused on operational resilience to protect clients, data, networks and operations from diverse cyber threats including theft, disruption and destruction. Last weekend we conducted our 2025 SIFMA Industry test, during which securities firms and market infrastructure providers and key third parties tested their business continuity and disaster recovery plans by exercising and verifying their ability to operate using backup sites, recovery facilities and backup communication capabilities. Over 90 entities were available for testing, including equities and options exchanges, fixed income markets, market data providers, clearing agencies, payments platforms, and service bureaus, as well as a simulated Treasury auction.
“In parallel, Regulation SCI entities completed their testing requirements with the industry. Regulation SCI requires that each SCI entity designate members and participants to take part in an annual business continuity and disaster recovery plan test. SIFMA facilitates a coordinated testing program for the industry as part of our business continuity planning and disaster recovery work. Reg SCI testing included simulated trading days for all Reg SCI exchanges and ATSs, along with simulated post-trade activity for clearing utilities, as well as simulated regulatory trade reporting.
“The successful test outcome underscores the ability of the securities industry to operate through adverse conditions. We appreciate all the entities who took part in this year’s Industry Test.”
SIFMA is the leading trade association for broker-dealers, investment banks and asset managers operating in the U.S. and global capital markets. On behalf of our industry’s one million employees, we advocate on legislation, regulation and business policy affecting retail and institutional investors, equity and fixed income markets and related products and services. We serve as an industry coordinating body to promote fair and orderly markets, informed regulatory compliance, and efficient market operations and resiliency. We also provide a forum for industry policy and professional development. SIFMA, with offices in New York and Washington, D.C., is the U.S. regional member of the Global Financial Markets Association (GFMA).
Capitolis Appoints Financial Technology Veteran Richard Schiffman as Chief Product Officer to Lead Product Vision & Delivery and Accelerate Business Growth
Schiffman, the product lead of MarketAxess at its founding and its market capitalization peak of $21 billion, brings over 30 years of experience driving product innovation and strategy at global financial services firms
NEW YORK (October 27, 2025) — Capitolis, the financial technology company, announced the appointment of Richard Schiffman as Chief Product Officer. Reporting to Gil Mandelzis, Chief Executive Officer and Founder of Capitolis, Schiffman will be responsible for defining the firm’s product strategy and delivery roadmap to meet market needs and scale the business.
Schiffman brings over 30 years of experience at the intersection of product, strategy, and technology within global financial services firms. He has built and operated transformational businesses and led high-impact product development teams that delivered innovative technology solutions.
Schiffman joins Capitolis from MarketAxess (NASDAQ: MKTX), where he was its first employee and played a key role in building the company into an industry leader, contributing to its growth through a successful IPO. The company hit its peak market capitalization of $21 billion, served over 2,000 customers, and employed over 800 people during Schiffman’s tenure. Throughout his more than 20-year career at MarketAxess, Schiffman held roles including Chief Technology Officer and, most recently, Global Head of Trading Solutions, responsible for product development as well as the firm’s investment grade, high yield, municipal and Open Trading businesses.
Previously, Schiffman was Managing Director at BlackRock Financial Management. Earlier in his career, he served as Vice President and Manager of Fixed Income Research Technology at J.P. Morgan.
“Capitolis is preparing for its next phase of hyper growth on the back of exceptional scaling over the past few years, and Rich is the proven leader we have been looking for to drive our product roadmap and delivery,” said Gil Mandelzis, CEO & Founder, Capitolis. “Rich has built an impressive career leading product and technology at preeminent financial institutions. He has experienced the growth from day zero through hyper scaling, going through an IPO and operating in a public, globally leading company. His track record of building innovative products will help accelerate Capitolis’ next phase of growth and expansion.”
“I am thrilled to join Capitolis at such an exciting time in this company’s journey,” said Richard Schiffman, Chief Product Officer, Capitolis. “I look forward to partnering closely with the entire team and our clients to deliver world-class products that help Capitolis continue to grow and scale, meet the needs of the market, and advance the firm’s vision of creating safer and more vibrant financial markets.”
Recently, Capitolis has experienced strong business momentum and expansion. Over the past year, the fintech has launched a variety of new products, significantly grown the network of clients leveraging its platform, received additional strategic bank investments, and acquired Capitalab—BGC Group’s Rates Compression and Margin Optimization business—to enter into the Interest Rates space. Schiffman’s appointment marks the latest executive hire to support Capitolis’ next phase of rapid growth and expansion, following the addition of Amol Naik as Chief Operating Officer and Melanie Carucci as Global Head of Sales.
About Capitolis
We believe the financial markets can and should work for everyone. Capitolis is the technology company helping to create safer and more vibrant financial markets by unlocking capital constraints and enabling greater access to more diversified capital and investment opportunities. Rooted in advanced technology and deep financial expertise, Capitolis powers groundbreaking financial solutions that drive growth for global and regional banks – and institutional investors alike. Capitolis is backed by world class venture capital firms, including Canapi Ventures, 9Yards Capital, SVB Capital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Index Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Spark Capital, and S Capital, as well as leading global banks such as Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citi, J.P. Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Standard Chartered, State Street and UBS.
Nordic Capital to acquire BMLL, a leading provider of historical trading data and analytics for capital markets
Nordic Capital announces an agreement to acquire BMLL, a leading independent provider of harmonised historical order book data and analytics. The investment will be made in close partnership with the management team of BMLL and minority shareholder Optiver, marking a joint commitment to accelerate the company’s next phase of growth. Specifically, the investment will advance BMLL’s mission to deliver the market’s trusted base layer of high-quality, analytics-ready historical data across all major exchange-traded asset classes.
Founded in 2014 by Cambridge academics, BMLL delivers the most granular Level 3, 2 and 1 order book data and analytics spanning global equities, ETFs, futures and US options. BMLL’s highly rigorous and proprietary engineering process cleans, standardises and unifies raw and inconsistent market data from more than 120 venues into a single, globally consistent format. This enables banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges and other market participants to easily access and analyse the deepest available view of the market for research, trading, analytics and compliance. Delivered via its cloud-native product suite, it provides analytics- and AI-ready data “out of the box” that eliminates the need for complex in-house data engineering, thereby accelerating insights, improving performance and boosting ROI. BMLL is setting a new standard for data quality across the market.
“We’ve spent the past decade investing in our award-winning data engineering capabilities and building the industry’s foundational layer of harmonised order book data. The greatest testament and validation of our work is the fact that market participants are now building increasingly sophisticated workflows on top of our data. I am extremely proud of everything our team has delivered over the years, cementing our position as the de-facto historical data and analytics provider to the capital markets. Their hard work and unwavering commitment to excellence has made us the category creator and leader we are today,” said Paul Humphrey, Chief Executive Officer of BMLL.
The investment from Nordic Capital includes a meaningful injection of primary capital into BMLL, providing long-term funding to support continued investment, innovation and client delivery. BMLL intends to use this investment to further expand global venue coverage, extend historical depth and grow multi-asset class capabilities, giving the market a differentiated alternative to the incumbent market data providers. This initiative represents a commitment to building the trusted “golden copy” of high-quality, AI-ready historical market data that enables market participants to make better data-driven decisions across the trading lifecycle, from alpha generation to execution analytics. With Nordic Capital’s support, BMLL will also seek to strengthen its go-to-market capabilities and deepen ecosystem partnerships with exchanges, technology platforms and market infrastructure providers. The existing management team, led by CEO Paul Humphrey, will continue leading the business and remain as shareholders, ensuring continuity for clients, partners and employees as the company enters its next phase of growth.
Humphrey added: “With Nordic Capital by our side, along with Optiver, we are excited about BMLL’s future, and the impact we will have on participants’ ability to navigate complex market dynamics globally. We will keep raising the bar for data quality and delivering this data to every corner of the market, enabling firms to focus their expensive quant talent on innovation, not on data cleansing. The leadership team and I are looking forward to the next stage of growth as we deepen BMLL’s data coverage and partnerships worldwide.”
“BMLL stands out for the precision, transparency and insight it brings to market participants. Nordic Capital sees a clear opportunity to invest in content, analytics and partnerships that extend BMLL’s reach globally, helping more firms harness the power of harmonised, high-quality data. Leveraging Nordic Capital’s long-standing expertise in capital markets software and data, we will work closely with Paul and his team to seek to expand BMLL’s footprint, elevate the product and analytics offering, and scale distribution and partnerships,” said David Samuelson, Partner at Nordic Capital Advisors.
Technology & Payments is one of Nordic Capital’s core focus sectors, supported by a dedicated team at Nordic Capital Advisors, deep industry network and long track record of building category-leading companies. Nordic Capital has consistently driven growth and innovation across financial software and data-driven technology, with deep experience across both the Technology & Payments and Financial Services sectors. Notable investments include ActiveViam, boost.ai, Duco, Itiviti, Macrobond, Regnology, Signicat, Trustly and Zafin, among others.
The parties have agreed to not disclose the financial details of the transaction.
Nordic Capital was advised by UBS, Oliver Wyman, Crisil Coalition Greenwich and OPCO Advisory.
BMLL was advised by Royal Park Partners.
Media contacts:
Nordic Capital Elin Ljung Operating Partner, Head of Sustainability & Communications Nordic Capital Advisors elin.ljung@nordiccapital.com
On behalf of Nordic Capital Corinna Vere Nicoll Equity Dynamics +44 (0)7825 326 440 corinna@equitydynamics.co.uk
Nordic Capital is a leading international private equity investor and sub-sector specialist dedicated to building stronger, more sustainable businesses through operational improvement and transformative long-term growth in partnership with management teams. With over 35 years of experience, a global reach, and the local presence of dedicated sector investment advisory teams in Sweden, UK, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Finland and the US, Nordic Capital brings deep expertise across its core investment sectors: Healthcare, Technology & Payments, Financial Services and Services & Industrial Tech. Leveraging tailored playbooks, a dedicated operations advisory team and a global network of industrial and functional experts, Nordic Capital seeks to help companies to scale, innovate and become sustainable leaders. Nordic Capital currently manages around EUR 34 billion in assets and since its founding in 1989, has invested approximately EUR 30 billion in more than 150 middle-market companies in Northern Europe and North America. The committed capital is principally provided by global institutional investors such as pension funds. For more information, see www.nordiccapital.com or connect via LinkedIn.
“Nordic Capital” refers to, depending on the context, any, or all, Nordic Capital branded entities, vehicles, structures, and associated entities. The general partners and/or delegated portfolio managers of Nordic Capital’s entities and vehicles are advised by several non-discretionary sub-advisory entities, any or all of which are referred to as “Nordic Capital Advisors”.
About BMLL
Founded in 2014, BMLL is a leading, independent provider of cleansed, normalised and harmonised historical Level 3, 2 and 1 order book data and analytics to the world’s most sophisticated capital market participants, covering global equities, ETFs and futures and US equity options. Its cloud-native platform enables market participants to access analytics-ready data to understand market behaviour, accelerate research, optimise trading strategies and generate alpha more predictably.
