Citi and JP Morgan have joined ParFX, the wholesale spot FX electronic trading platform launched in April 2013 by inter-dealer broker Tradition.
The venue launched with 11 banks – Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, Royal Bank of Canada, SEB, Standard Chartered, State Street and UBS – with Societe Generale joining in December.
The addition of the two global banks comes as the platform “is opened to the wider FX trading community in early 2014”, according to a statement issued by Tradition.
ParFX’s matching mechanism applies a randomised pause to order elements such as amendments, cancellations and confirmations to enhance certainty of execution for participants “regardless of location or technological sophistication”.
The trading venue, which is open to all institutions that are able to settle trades via CLS, aims to provide low-cost access to FX liquidity in CLS-eligible currency pairs. Connectivity is via industry-standard FIX protocol API.
“A competitive marketplace, offering an array of products and services, is in the best interest of our clients and the industry. The ParFX platform is designed to offer efficient, reliable execution for participants and we are excited to be joining as a founder,” said Richard Bibbey, global head of electronic FX trading at Citi.
“There is growing interest in the platform and we look forward to continuing to facilitate liquidity over the coming year,” said Daniel Marcus, CEO of ParFX.