Deutsche Bank has overhauled its Autobahn FX trading platform, which it says will give buy-side customers more control over their currency trades.
The new system includes a combined electronic and voice trade blotter that shows all trades regardless of execution channel, direct access to Deutsche Bank’s FX and cross-product research and real-time commentary alerts.
The enhanced service is indicative of the growing number of electronic FX trading platforms that have been released in recent months, as market participants shift away from traditional OTC bilateral relationships for FX trading and embrace tools and make more use of technology such as smart order routers and venue analysis.
The Deutsche Bank offering provides streaming non-deliverable swaps, an improved set of order types including contingent, multi-leg and algorithmic orders and the ability for users to build baskets of applications.
“As the world’s largest FX bank, Deutsche Bank prides itself on providing the deepest liquidity and cutting edge execution services,” said Zar Amrolia, global head of foreign exchange at Deutsche Bank. “This launch represents a quantum leap forward for the FX market at a time when volumes continue to increase.”
The new Deutsche Bank FX platform will be rolled out in staged releases in the coming months. Some 300 clients already use Autobahn; Deutsche Bank has stated that it will continue to support the existing offering until all clients are successfully migrated.
Buy-side firms have traditionally treated FX as a low priority asset class. However, a series of legal disputes between custodians and buy-side clients over pricing has helped increase the spotlight on FX execution quality. Vendors ITG, TradingScreen and Abel Noser Solutions have all launched FX transaction cost analysis platforms in the last three months, aimed at improving transparency in the asset class for buy-side clients.
Earlier this month, Thomson Reuters agreed to purchase FXall, an electronic multi-bank FX trading platform and expanded its own capabilities earlier this year with the launch of a global analysis and commentary service called FX Buzz.