Deutsche Börse has purchased a minority stake in Paris-based trading software and consulting firm Investors Derivatives (ID) solutions, in a move to increase pre-trade transparency for institutional investors.
The two firms finalised the deal last week and Deutsche Börse will pay a fee in the single-figure million euro range for the stake.
In April 2009, ID launched a request-for-quote (RFQ) hub, which provides software for multi-dealer, bilateral RFQs that have originated from buy-side firms for cash equities and derivatives. The hub is currently supported by over 10 of the largest equity derivatives broker dealers and is designed to facilitate electronic transmission and receipt of tradable quotes, which ID claims enhances price transparency and execution for listed, flexible and over-the-counter (OTC) transactions.
“This investment in RFQ-hub highlights our recognition of the changing industry landscape and aims to support the G20 commitments for improving the integrity and safety of financial markets and of the OTC markets in particular,” said Peter Reitz, managing director for business development at Deutsche Börse. “As a regulated exchange and clearing house we provide transparent execution, processing and clearing services and we are committed to the regulator's goal of higher transparency in financial markets. The execution software provided by RFQ-hub is an important element of this objective, particularly for the benefit of buy-side participants.”
“We see a number of changes to the way we deal with derivatives as a potential outcome of the MIFID review and want to stay ahead of the game. RFQ-hub should help us with that. On top of that RFQ-hub comes with a number of extremely helpful reporting tools which enable us to even better analyse and manage the business relationship with our counterparts”, said Eric Böss, director, global head of derivatives at RCM Allianz Global Investors.