Verizon Business, the technology division of telecommunications firm Verizon Communications, has extended its US trading network to the financial services industry in Europe.
The Verizon Financial Services Network will allow brokers, hedge funds, exchanges, asset managers and pre and post-trade service providers to share market data and trade information at high-speeds.
According to Verizon, users will be able to collaborate with customers and partners, consolidate their market access, distribute services and information, and execute pre-trade, trade and post-trade transactions within a secure, resilient environment.
“The Verizon Financial Services Network solution helps financial institutions capitalise on market movements by enabling them to respond with speed and agility,” said Chandan Sharma, global managing director, Verizon Business financial services practice, in a statement. “Essentially, we bring the capital markets closer to our customers through a low-latency, highly available and scalable business infrastructure that helps them better manage the challenges of market fragmentation, globalisation, high-frequency trading, asset class proliferation and fierce competition.”
Verizon’s European network is available to clients as a standard managed solution or a customised implementation to suit individual business needs.
Meanwhile, fellow communications provider BT’s Global Banking & Financial Markets (GB&FM) business unit has singed a deal with visual messaging provider Kulu Valley to enhance its trading services product suite.
The two firms have entered into a reseller agreement, enabling BT GB&FM to broaden its communication portfolio by allowing video messages and presentations to be delivered across all of BT’s trading services products.
According to BT, Kulu Valley’s visual messaging solution will increase trader productivity by speeding up market access and data delivery. Financial institutions will also be able to create and distribute video communications globally.
The Kulu Valley visual messaging solution will initially be integrated with BT’s Trading Communications solutions with a view to extending deployment across the BT Radianz shared market infrastructure.
“With financial markets becoming increasingly automated and complex, financial institutions need access to tools that help them get the most out of their time and their trading rooms,” said Tim Furmidge, head of strategy and product development, BT GB&FM. “People and technology are interacting more closely than ever before during sales and execution, creating a growing need for converged voice, data networks and multi-media applications to improve efficiency and productivity.”