Start-up Northcross Capital sees Denarius as key to growth

Northcross Capital said the system offered excellent growth potential to start-ups such as itself because its module-based platform provided for future scalability as and when new products were traded. Jason van Praagh, a partner of the firm, who previously worked at both Rabobank and Deutsche Bank, said too many smaller firms were put off making investments in such cross-asset platforms because of the cost outlay involved.

“When you’re small, cost is an important thing and people get scared about how much it’s going to be,” he said. “But we decided it was more prudent from a management point of view to have something from the outset, across the board.” He added that the ease of use and intuitive nature of the system made it particularly appealing.

Since it began trading in May this year, Northcross Capital has offered clients a range of structured investment vehicles using a team poached from Morgan Stanley, JP Morgan Chase, Deutsche Bank and rating agency Moody’s. Its first major vehicle is a $20 billion A-1/P-1 rated financing arbitrage asset-backed commercial paper conduit backed by highly rated assets.

Anvil’s Denarius is a global, integrated trading system that provides banks and other financial institutions with real-time trade execution and position/order management. The installation at Northcross Capital took 30 days.