FX post-trade infrastructure and solutions provider Cobalt has announced that it has gone live with Deutsche Bank, XTX Markets and Saxo Bank as its first clients. Cobalt has developed a platform that matches all FX trades into a single trusted record, dramatically increasing efficiency and offering clients savings of up to 50% on their current processing fees.
This single trusted record forms the backbone for Cobalt to provide a multitude of middle and back-office services, such as credit management and trade finality.
The company automated technology matches all versions of a trade into a single ‘trusted copy’, freeing up post trade resources from multiple layers of reconciliation and cost; generating one immutable data set of FX transactions from which Cobalt and third parties can provide multiple services.
Russell LaScala, Co-head of Global FX at Deutsche Bank said:
The two biggest business issues banks face today are managing risk and the scaling of their business with the rise of smaller tickets. Cobalt’s solution ensures we can reduce operational risks associated with legacy systems and slash the cost of processing tickets for our entire FX business using a single platform.
Mike Irwin, COO at XTX Markets, explained:
As an institution with daily trading volumes of $150 billion, it’s vital we use the best technology to maximise efficiency and reduce costs. We have partnered with Cobalt as it is a neutral, independent market facilitator that offers the functionality and sophisticated technology we require to scale our business.
Dave Reid, Global Head of FX Prime Broking at Deutsche Bank, added:
Utilising Cobalt’s netting and aggregation service means we can more efficiently manage our bilateral and triparty transactions, reducing our exposure to risk and excess ticket processing.
Henrik Villberg, Global Head of Trading & Market Access, at Saxo Bank commented:
As an institution that deals with high volumes of small ticket FX trades, we incur substantial cost from our back-office processes. It is in our interest therefore, to look at solutions to create efficiencies in this area. We are happy to adopt Cobalt’s processes that address this, whilst providing transparent and lower costs.
Darren Coote, CEO of Cobalt concluded:
Having the backing of these three different FX players, one an established bank which has been innovating for over 20 years, a new breed of electronic market-maker and a technology pioneer in banking and retail trading technology, demonstrates that shared infrastructure is the future of post-trade FX.