Ipc Launches Industry Leading Fx Hub Solution

Enables alpha generation, liquidity sourcing and risk mitigation in the global FX markets

IPC Systems, Inc., a leading global provider of specialised communications and managed network-as-a-service solutions for the financial trading community, today announced that it has launched FX Hub, a low latency, co-located performance solution engineered to address the industry’s most complex trading challenges. IPC’s FX Hub is centred at the heart of the global foreign exchange markets, specifically Equinix’s International Business Exchange™ (IBX®) data centres in New York (NY4), London (LD4), Tokyo (TY3), and Singapore (SG2) as well as emerging FX areas such as Moscow; all with access to IPC’s vast community of financial market participants and positioned locally with low latency access via IPC’s dark fibre rings to key FX liquidity providers and dealers.

The increased need for reliable connectivity to source liquidity, mitigate risk and harvest alpha in the FX markets is largely due to growth in non-dealer financial institution participation, the increased use of execution algorithms and the lack of a central marketplace. Given these market dynamics, IPC’s FX Hub offers investors:

• Easier and faster connectivity to brokers/dealers, investment banks, prime brokers, and liquidity providers to trade effectively, achieve best execution, discover prices and minimise market impact.
• Efficient access to market data and trade lifecycle services such as order management and execution management systems as well as data and transaction cost analysis services.
• Improved collaboration among traders, portfolio managers and risk managers to execute investment strategies and manage risk.
• Access to a full community of services and simplified management.
• Comprehensive and affordable business continuity management, disaster recovery planning solutions to ensure 24/7 access to the FX markets that is underpinned by an industry leading global provider with exclusive focus on financial markets.

“Successfully trading the foreign exchange markets is challenging given the complicated market structure,” said Larry Tabb, CEO of Tabb Group, a leading financial markets research and strategic advisory firm. “There are a vast number of instruments such as currency swaps, forwards, options, indices, outrights, non-deliverable forwards and structured products along with many exotic currency pairs that are being traded by market participants. FX is not just about spot transactions or trading only G4 currencies. ”

Tabb continued “We see non-dealer financial institutions, insurance companies, corporate treasuries and brokers increasingly deploying performance-engineered managed hosting, connectivity and colocation services in order to benefit from economies of scale, access a range of liquidity venues, achieve best execution and participate cost-effectively in the global FX markets.”

“The growing participation of pension funds, insurance companies, regional banks, hedge funds and proprietary trading firms in FX has led to more heterogeneity in the markets,” said David Brown, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, Financial Markets Network, IPC. “Consequently, reliable, secure and operationally resilient managed network services as well as access to an ecosystem of diverse counterparties have now become the backbone for successful FX trading.”

Brown continued “Global trade depends on efficient and accessible FX markets. Today’s announcement underscores IPC’s wholehearted commitment to serving all the participants in the global FX markets, the world’s largest and most liquid asset class, with cutting-edge solutions.”

The IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio includes the Connexus Financial Extranet, Direct Connect and MPLS WAN data services, as well as Trader and Enhanced Voice connectivity services. IPC’s Financial Markets Network interconnects global financial centres and allows access to more than 6,000 market participant locations across 700 cities in more than 60 countries.