GFI announces Fenics link with UBS

GFI Group, the New York-based inter-dealer brokerage and software company, has made a deal with Swiss investment bank UBS, to link its currency options software with the bank’s screen-trading system.

GFI’s software, Fenics FX, prices and manages currency options positions. The link will feed trades made using UBS’s screen-trading system, FX Option Trader, straight through to Fenics.

Nicola Williamson, product manager for Fenics at GFI, who has spearheaded the initiative, says the main aim of the link is to “reduce errors associated with manual booking and data entry of trade details”. She also claims the link will significantly speed up position analysis as trades go instantly through into a company’s database.

Greg Ford, head of trading at hedge fund BGB Weston, said: “As a user of both Fenics FX and FX Option Trader, we stand to benefit a great deal from the decision to connect the two systems together. It allows us to be confident in the knowledge that Fenics FX always contains the latest and most accurate trade information reflecting our up-to-date positions, therefore permitting us to concentrate on making the most of trading opportunities.” Ford runs a foreign exchange options arbitrage fund at BGB.

Williamson said the deal came about after discussions with UBS: “It became clear we shared a large overlap in our customer base. Therefore, it was a natural synergy to establish an automated link between the two systems.” He added that: “UBS is not the only bank who has an electronic options trading system, and there are ongoing conversations that may yield similar link-ups.”

UBS was the first investment bank to launch electronic currency options trading in 2001.