BNP tap Etrali for floors in China

French trading communications technology maker Etrali has done a deal with BNP Paribas to deploy its hardware on trading floors in China, says Henri Vautheny, Etrali’s general manager for Asia, excluding Japan.

BNP Paribas has installed 10 'Mach 2' turrets – a telephone-based communication device for traders – for trading foreign exchange, spot and derivatives on a new Shanghai trading floor, reports RiskNews’ sister publication, Trading Technology Week. The Mach 2 is Etrali’s flagship trading turret and offers features such as individual keys for calls and an echo-cancelling system.

BNP’s Shanghai floor, which opened late last month, is the latest in a long line of Etrali deployments at the French investment bank’s Asian locations. BNP currently uses Etrali turrets at sites including Bangkok, Hong Kong, Seoul, Singapore and Taipei.

A BNP official says the bank did not consider other vendors because Etrali is its "regional standard" turret provider.

The Asia-Pacific region appears to be heating up for turret vendors, principally because it’s ripe for automation and is in recovery.

"The brakes that were on in terms of recession [globally] have certainly come off, and Asia-Pacific seems to be leading the recovery [in the trading turret business]," says Judith Dixon, marketing manager for trading systems at BT Syntegra in London, speaking in March.

China is set to be particularly significant, says Etrali’s Vautheny.

"Everyone is waiting for the deregulation of foreign exchange. Everyone is getting ready and wants to start in the best possible position," Vautheny says.

International investment banks have been gearing up for forex business in China in anticipation of the relaxation of the renminbi’s peg to the dollar and the transaction of non-renminbi derivatives for profit, rather than simply for hedging purposes.