Risk tech firms partner to develop forex trading product

Risk technology firms, Pennsylvania-based Financial Software Systems (FSS), and New York-based PFS Trader Tools, said today that they are working together to develop a Web-based foreign exchange trading service. The risk management tool, branded TradeTrac, provides real-time margin checks, automated order execution and transaction management capabilities for collaterised spot, forward and option forex trades.

TradeTrac is a mix of FSS’s MarginTrac back-office forex tool and PFS’s order management product, OrderTrac. The firms said TradeTrac, which will offer straight-through processing, is capable of handling more than 10,000 forex transactions per day.

An FSS spokesman told RiskNews that TradeTrac is currently being tested by a major global brokerage and that the product will be marketed towards brokers, investment banks and hedge funds. FSS and PFS expect TradeTrac to be running within the next six weeks, although the cost of the product has yet to be decided. The spokesman added that the firms are looking to add equity derivatives functionality to TradeTrac.

“With TradeTrac, banks and brokerage firms can offer their clients the flexibility to control risks through leaving orders, while at the same time assuring the bank is insulated from counterparty risk through the efficient management of collateral,” said Yaacov Heidingsfeld, PFS chief operating officer.