Japanese broker Daiwa Securities SMBC will launch an electronic trading platform for cash and listed derivatives in Asia next year.
The bank will offer international clients the ability to trade in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, Singapore, India and Taiwan through a suite of electronic trading tools including algorithmic trading, a crossing engine, direct market access (DMA) trading and smart order router (SOR).
Daiwa plans to hire an additional dozen professionals in Japan and Hong Kong to serve clients across the region.
“The demand for electronic trading strategies has increased drastically in the last few years as more buy-side clients opt for the unbundling of research and execution to achieve better efficiency and lower transaction costs,” said Punit Mittal, Daiwa’s global head of electronic trading, in a statement.
Following the launch of Daiwa AlgoRithmic Trading algo suite earlier this year, Daiwa will roll out the next generation crossing platform and SOR in early 2010.
Daiwa will also be launching a low-latency DMA platform using the co-location facility that will be provided by the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) after Arrowhead, TSE’s next generation trading system, goes live in January 2010. Fast DMA will be mainly used by high-frequency traders.
“Daiwa is committed to becoming a full-service investment bank in order to tap into the growing Asian markets. To that end, we are expanding across all divisions including investment banking, electronic trading, equity financing and derivatives to service global institutional clients, said Toshinao Matsushima, Daiwa’s managing director and head of global markets.
Daiwa has recently announced plans to invest ¥100 billion ($1.13 billion) in its Asia ex-Japan operations and to increase headcount in the region by more than 400. According to the firm, the new electronic trading platform is one of many planned initiatives to expand its service offerings.
Daiwa Securities SMBC, currently a 60:40 joint venture between Daiwa Securities Group and Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group (SMFG), will be renamed Daiwa Capital Markets on January 1st 2010, following Daiwa Securities Group’s acquisition of SMFG’s 40% stake on 31 December.