Reliable and Efficient Infrastructure for Capital Markets (Case Study #19-053017)

Background of Client

A Leading Trading Group is more than a marketplace organizer for the trading in shares and other securities. It is one of the largest exchange organizations worldwide. Product and Service Portfolio Securities and derivatives trading and clearing, netting and transaction settlement, custody, the provision of market information, as well as the development and operation of electronic trading systems

• Employees: About 3,300 employees in Europe, America, and Asia

• Operating Locations: Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Spain, Czech Republic and the United States, as well as representative offices in Beijing, Dubai, Hong Kong, London, Moscow, New York, Paris, Singapore, and Tokyo.

• Business Areas: Trading platform

• Exchange: spot market

• Global market leader in trading and clearing futures and options

• Integrated banking, settlement, and custody services for the trading of fixed interest securities and shares

• Market Data & Analytics: data dissemination and index calculation

A Leading Trading Group provides access to capital markets for investors, financial institutions, and corporations worldwide. This group offers extremely reliable systems and innovative process solutions – with dependable and flexible support from External Consultant

From securities and derivatives trading to clearing, settlement, custody, market data, and electronic trading systems: This Leading Trading organization is one of the largest exchange organizations worldwide. Its comprehensive product and services portfolio provides international investors, financial institutions, and organizations with secure transactions in capital markets.

This Group recognized the significance of electronic trading and order-processing earlier than other capital market organizations. Exchange participants gain access to roughly 400,000 securities through the electronic trading system. Transactions from licensed traders at all international connection points are matched on a central computer. In addition, they have established itself as one of the leading international derivatives market. The portfolio is completed by integrated banking, settlement, and custody services for fixed-income securities and equities.

Leading technologies for capital markets One thing above all is crucial for electronic trading and subsequent services: systems must run with industry leading reliability and availability. This Group invests continuously in the performance of its systems and networks to ensure that normal as well as peak load processing are fast and reliable. The IT subsidiary, A Leading Trading Systems, is responsible for this. A Leading Trading Systems also supports international customers, with innovative IT solutions, and it works with external consulting and development specialists on numerous projects.

Flexible sourcing with a solid partner

This Trading Group has counted on external IT Consultant competence since 2004. “We looked for a solid, long-term partner with the essential process and technology know-how in the capital market business, and one that affords us flexible sourcing with highly qualified resources,” explains Member of the board of this Group. From over 20 years of cooperation with the SIX Group and projects with other stock exchanges, clearing and depository houses, external IT Consultant has exactly these skills in trading, clearing, and settlement.

Success with integrated teams

Currently, 150 consultants are active in integrated project teams for this group in Europe and offshore. “Cooperation within the team is outstanding,” explains Member of the Board of this Group.

External IT Consultant supports additional development and testing of applications for various trading platforms, as well as integration with Clearing. For projects, requirements are specified at client Head Quarters; development specialists in India then implement the tasks in a reliable and cost-effective manner. External IT Consultant also leverages the critical knowledge acquired from the clients' individual technologies and processes into new projects and initiatives.

Teams work smoothly together across national borders and time zones. This is where the strength of the Shyam Rao an External IT Consultant and their Delivery Model is demonstrated. “Particularly in project management, Consultant has adapted itself very flexibly to our requirements. In the process we were able to learn something ourselves – for example, precise coordination of sub-projects throughout several locations,” states Member of the Board of this Group.

“Link Up Markets” success story

Collaboration with External IT Consultant creates important advantages for our group, particularly given their tight schedules and budgets. The collaboration helped accelerate the implementation of Link Up Markets: This joint venture with seven other European central securities depositories (CSDs) enables more cost-effective post trade processing for cross-border securities transactions. Development specialists offshore in India helped fulfill the necessary technological requirements in the shortest possible time – the system went live one month ahead of schedule.

Link Up Markets has created long-term cost advantages for all cooperation partners. For almost all asset classes, the various CSDs provide simple, secure, and cost-effective access to the country-specific services of their partners. Transactions can be executed with cost savings of up to 80% – a convincing argument worldwide.

Continuous improvement through cooperation

The well-established organization and External IT Consultant teams are jointly working on a major engagement: This Group is developing a standardized global infrastructure for its trading systems. For the various markets and financial instruments, it envisions a single architecture, as well as standardized interfaces for data transmission between stock exchange systems and those of the trader. It also includes new technological tasks.

“Our cooperation with External IT Consultant continues to bring improvement in an evolutionary way. Together, we will manage these challenges as well. ” Member of the Executive Board, of Leading Trading Organization in Europe