Agency broker ITG has launched a new monitoring tool for commission sharing agreements (CSAs) and client commission arrangements (CCAs), giving buy-side firms global visibility on equity and options trades.
ITG Commission Manager tracks trades in preferred currency and language with the ability to indicate foreign exchange and tax details on payments. It also let institutional investors management multiple broker CSAs and CCAs through one portal.
“ITG Commission Manager offers seamless functionality, detailed reporting and the ability to pay more than 4,000 brokers, vendors and independent research providers worldwide,” said Jack Pollina, ITG managing director and global head of commission management. “ITG Commission Manager saves valuable time for institutional investors and enables them to focus on their core investment activities.”
Investors can credit their CSA bank from trade execute through ITG or they can opt to pool credits from executing brokers for which ITG aggregates CCA and CSA credits.
The new tool will meet a growing usage of CSAs, as firms – particularly in the UK and US – look to separate payments for research and execution. In the UK, this trend has recently been spurred by a regulatory crackdown on broker commission payments, while in the US it has occurred organically.
Bill Bell, head of electronic distribution, Americas, for Barclays, told theTRADEnews.com that US asset managers squeezed by lower trading volumes are turning to CSAs because they have less to spend on broker commissions.
“A few years ago the sell-side tended to flood a buy-side account with research or corporate access resources in hopes of being reimbursed with commissions. This obviously didn’t work, and in a low-volume environment, the sell-side has come to realise its resources are finite,” said Bell.