High-frequency trading growth lures FTEN to Europe

FTEN, a US-based provider of sponsored access trading technology to high-frequency firms and sponsoring brokers, has established a European division and hired Valerie Bannert-Thurner as European executive director. The division will be based in London, UK.
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FTEN, a US-based provider of sponsored access trading technology to high-frequency firms and sponsoring brokers, has established a European division and hired Valerie Bannert-Thurner as European executive director. The division will be based in London, UK.

A big driver for the expansion, according to Bannert-Thurner, is a growing desire from US high-frequency trading firms, including statistical arbitrage hedge funds and proprietary traders, to start operating in Europe. “Trading has become faster in Europe, and trading costs have come down quite substantially, so it makes economic sense to bring these models into Europe when it probably didn’t two years back,” she told theTRADEnews.com. She added that there is also demand for FTEN’s services from European high-frequency trading firms.

A further reason for FTEN’s decision to launch in Europe is the growing adoption of sponsored access, which enables the buy-side to send trades directly to an exchange in the name of their executing broker. Several European trading venues, including the London Stock Exchange, Chi-X Europe, BATS Europe and Nasdaq OMX Europe, have launched sponsored access services in recent months. “That will increase the high-frequency trading activity in Europe,” said Bannert-Thurner. “We think there is going to be a big push in the next couple of months.”

FTEN offers high-frequency traders with a high-speed, multi-venue execution platform and provides sponsoring brokers a risk control system to manage the exposure of allowing firms to trade on venues using their membership. The firm is currently beta-testing the European version of its technology with clients. “We will be ready to go into production in the coming weeks,” said Bannert-Thurner.

FTEN is certified with the London Stock Exchange, BATS Europe, Chi-X Europe and Turquoise, and expects to receive certifications from all exchanges and multilateral trading facilities operating in Europe over the coming months.

Bannert-Thurner previously held a variety of positions at rival trading technology firm Skyler’s European division, including head of product strategy, strategic alliances, marketing and business development.

Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank’s autobahn electronic equity trading division has announced that it has gone live with sponsored access to Chi-X Europe.

“The rapidly evolving European trading landscape has created opportunities for new participants within the high velocity trading community, and we are committed to offering our clients every available advantage,” said Andrew Morgan, head of autobahn Equity, Europe, Deutsche Bank.

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