e-Forex Magazine | Viewpoint | Full Service provision: meeting the future needs of FX Prime Brokerage
Viewpoint : Full Service provision: meeting the future needs of FX Prime Brokerage
First Published in e-Forex Magazine July 2007
Brian Duff
Head of Prime Brokerage, North America, at RBS Greenwich CapitalThe FX market continues to evolve like never before, despite a trending decline of volatility, the volumes continue to grow. Prime Brokers continue to be challenged in terms of identifying and responding to client demand, supporting all available alternatives, and continuing to provide a superior client experience.
It is an increasing challenge to determine both where and how to prioritize precious resources to accomplish these objectives. It has been an interesting evolution with multi-dimensional complexities of additional execution channels, new market participants, coupled with increased demand for speed, data, and reporting.
Historically, the FX market allowed Prime Brokers to refine their capabilities in a relatively narrow scope. Many institutional clients were simply interested in accessing liquidity directly with bank desks, single bank streams, or via some of the multi-bank ECN's. There was some variety here, but the scope was still fairly manageable for Prime Brokers to facilitate. In the last couple of years, we have seen the market grow in a number of different directions. Prime Brokers have been challenged to support an increased number of ECN's, an entirely new client client sector, and demand to expand support across multiple asset classes.