![]()
Congratulations to Europe’s best Trading and Technology teams, firms and individuals. Click on a category to see the shortlist.
IT Department of the year - Sell Side
- Credit Suisse
Historically a strong electronic trading house, Credit Suisse has been fighting hard to keep its top spot, but competition is getting fierce. - Deutsche Bank
The German giant has endured some management changes but brought in some strong staff over the past year and continues to drive forward with its Autobahn project. - Goldman Sachs
The bank has been working hard in the front office and back office to keep pace with rivals. - Morgan Stanley
A multiple winner of this category in previous years, the US bank marries in-house development and outsourcing to good effect. - Nomura
The Japanese bank has built on the strong franchise Lehman Brothers had in IT and now ranks among the top electronic trading firms in Europe.
IT Department of the year - Buy Side
- BlackRock
The asset manager has undergone changes over the past year but prides itself on its strength in IT - Fidelity
A strong IT house, Fidelity has taken its IT expertise international. - Gartmore
The manager has committed itself to the outsourcing model. - Marshall Wace
The hedge fund has rapidly established itself as one of the pre-eminent trading firms of its class. - Schroders
The City of London institution prides itself on relationships but IT is an increasingly important differential.
Best Algorithmic Trading Service
- Bank of America Merrill Lynch
The firm has come through the integration and aims to challenge the top players in this ultra-competitive field. - Credit Suisse
Historically the top algorithmic trading house, its crown has slipped in the FN awards over the past two years. - Deutsche Bank
The bank has changed around its top electronic trading management this year but maintains a strong presence. - Goldman Sachs
The winner of this category two years ago, the US bank has been recruiting selectively. - UBS
A strong trading house, the bank has completed its rebuild after the financial crisis.
Best Sell Side Trading System
- Algo Technologies
The low-latency specialist has been founded by the former chief operating officer of Chi-X Europe, Hirander Misra. - Fidessa
Fidessa remains one of the main suppliers to investment banks. - FlexTrade
The firm is at the forefront of the new breed of sellside trading systems. - Portware
The trading system specialist has established itself as a market leader in the past five years. - Quanthouse
The low latency specialist has been working closely with the London Stock Exchange. - SunGard Valdi OMS
The new system from SunGard boasts cross-asset coverage and front-to-back trading.
Best Buy Side Trading System
- Charles River Development
The order management system provider handles all the front office requirements on the buyside. - ITG Triton
This system is popular among heads of trading as it enables sophisticated transaction cost analysis. - Latent Zero
Fidessa’s OMS offering for the buy-side, provides integrated portfolio management, order and execution management and compliance management, across all asset classes. - Reuters 3000 Xtra
The Reuters platform remains one of the strongest in its field.
Best Stock Exchange
- Bolsas y Mercados Españoles
The Spanish exchange has managed to hang on to more of its domestic market share than any of its peers. - Deutsche Börse
The German exhange has continued its process of diversification but its pan-European strategy needs defining. - London Stock Exchange
The UK market has completely redefined its strategy over the past year and is now focused on pan-European trading and post-trade services. - Nasdaq OMX
The transatlantic exchange ultimately failed with its Neuro venture but the exchange has not given up on Europe’s largest equity markets. - NYSE Euronext
The European arm of the exchange giant has made progress with its SmartPool and NYSE Arca Europe ventures.
Best Multi-Lateral Trading Facility
- Bats Europe
The US firm continues its bid to repeat in Europe its success in the US and it has continued to build market share this year. - Chi-X Europe
The largest European MTF, Chi-X Europe has continued to grow this year. - Equiduct
The Citadel-backed MTF is tackling the retail brokerage market and is making progress. - NYSE Arca Europe
The Euronext platform continues to grow and complement trading on the exchange group’s main markets. - Turquoise
The landmark MTF has been bought by the LSE and it showing signs of improvement after the upheaval.
Best Dark Pool
- Chi-X Europe’s Chi-Delta
The dark pool suffered a setback in May amid fears of information leakage but is coming back stronger than ever. - Liquidnet
The best established of this year’s dark pools, Liquidnet has maintained market share by focusing on the buyside. - Nomura NX
The relative newcomer of this year’s crop, NX was the first bank-owned dark pool to register as an MTF. - NYSE SmartPool
SmartPool has gone from strength to strength under Lee Hodgkinson and grows month by month. - Turquoise
The LSE-owned dark pool has been integrated with the exchange’s Baikal project and at the time of writing was the top dark pool in Europe.
Best Futures and Options Exchange
- Chicago Mercantile Exchange
The Merc is the dominant futures market in the US and is eyeing Europe. - Deutsche Börse Eurex
The German market has digested US options group the International Securities Exchange and is eyeing OTC opportunities. - IntercontinentalExchange
The energy market has become the runaway leader in the race to claim the CDS clearing market and looks well set to build on this success. - NYSE Liffe
The UK market has been developing products and the big push is the US where it plans to take on the might of the CME. - OMX Nordic Exchanges
The Scandinavian derivatives markets are not the largest in Europe but they are tech-savvy and efficient.
Best OTC Trading System
- ICAP BrokerTec
The ICAP platform remains the benchmark for inter-dealer bond trading. - GFI Credit Match
The broker has built its reputation on the hybrid trading model that includes cutting edge broking systems. - MarketAxess
The bond system remains a leader in its field. - tpCreditDeal
Tullett’s systems have improved and this system now competes with the best available. - Tradeweb
The bank-owned bond trading system remains a favourite among the largest fixed-income dealers.
Best Clearing House
- DTCC’s EuroCCP
The US-owned system has been at the forefront of the effort to enable interoperability between rivals. - Eurex Clearing
The clearing house continues to serve the German markets. - Fortis EMCF
The clearing house supports Chi-X Europe and Bats Europe and as such is one of the largest in Europe now. - LCH.Clearnet
The UK clearing house last year managed to resist a hostile takeover attempt and has continued to work towards interoperability. - SIX x-clear
Arguably the most efficient clearing house, the Swiss clearer has the only meaningful interoperability link, with LCH.Clearnet.
Best OTC Clearing House
- CME Clearing
The Merc is eyeing OTC clearing in Europe. - Eurex Clearing
The German system has built some traction and recently moved into single name CDS clearing - ICE Clear
The runaway winner in the US and Europe, the energy exchange systems has taken the market by storm. - LCH.Clearnet
The UK clearer has been handling interest rate swaps for years and is the leading provider in this space. - NYSE Liffe Clear
The exchange has changed its clearing arrangements in the past year and now plans to take clearing in in-house.
Best Data Service
- Bloomberg
The Bloomberg feed remains a must for all traders and brokers. - Dow Jones
The News Corporation-owned supplier has ambitions on the financial data market. - Interactive Data
The firm has undergone a period of uncertainty but its sale to private equity firms Warburg Pincus and SilverLake has steadied the ship - Markit
The bank-owned data vendor has continued to grow rapidly and dominates many areas of the OTC and fixed-income market. - Thomson Reuters
The global firm has come through its merger and is competing for business.
Best Agency Brokerage
- CA Cheuvreux
The Credit Agricole-owned broker ranks high in all of the main European markets. - Instinet
The Nomura-owned broker has continued to perform well, mixing electronic and sales trading. - ITG International
The electronic broker has gone through management changes but continues to compete. - Liquidnet
The dark pool specialist has benefited from increased interest in these trading systems. - Sanford Bernstein
The research specialist remains highly ranked.
Best Smart Order Router
- Aleri
The complex event processing system is among the fastest and is well liked by clients. - Progress Apama SOR
The system claims to be a leader for algorithmic trading and order routing. - Quod Financial: The vendor sees its strength in multi-asset class trading.
- Reuters Order Routing for Equities
The system complements the dozens of Reuters products throughout the trade lifecycle. - Ullink
The system handles low-latency trading, smart routing and order management.
Best Fixed Income Trading Platform
- ICAP Brokertec
The broker system remains the most liquid for certain fixed-income products. - London Stock Exchange MTS
The UK exchange-owned system handles many European sovereign debt products and has been busy in the past year. - MarketAxess
The system remains a strong corporate bond market. - Thomson Reuters Fixed Income Trading
Thomson Reuters is pushing into fixed income with new functionality and new clients. - Vega-Chi
The fledgling convertible bond system is the first example of a fixed-income MTF.
Best Foreign Exchange Trading System
- Bloomberg TradeBook FX
The Bloomberg system continues to build on the firm’s strength in fixed-income trading. - Currenex
The platform has over 70 banking clients and offers a full straight-through processing service - FXAll
Ten years after launch this system offers full coverage and a deep liquidity pool. - ICAP EBS
The inter-dealer system sets the standard in this liquid market. - Thomson Reuters Trading for Foreign Exchange
Reuters has always been strong in FX and this system continues that tradition.
Best New Vendor Solution
- Algo M2
The low latency specialist is set to make a splash. - Hyper Rig Risk Management
Hyper Rig is a new entrant offering real-time multi-asset risk management. - Rimes Benchmark Data Service
The new fully managed data service allows customers to link to any benchmark/index. - Spread Intelligence XS Trading
The venture was born out of a proprietary trading firm and offers connectivity to 45 exchanges. - TriOptima’s Global OTC Derivatives Interest Rate Trade Reporting Repository
The system is the industry’s repository for interest rate swap data.
Best Personal Contribution
- Niki Beattie
The former head of European markets at Merrill Lynch and founder of Turquoise has set up her own consultancy. - Lee Hodgkinson
The chief executive of SmartPool has grown the dark pool this year. - Eli Lederman
The former Morgan Stanley banker set up Turquoise and spearheaded the challenge to the exchanges. - Xavier Rolet
The LSE chief executive has shaken up the 209 year old exchange in a little over one year. - Steve Wood
The former head of trading at Schroders is working with buyside and sellside firms.
Most Promising Rising Star in Trading & Technology
- Phil Allison, UBS
The UBS MD has continued his impressive ascent this year. - George Andreadis, Credit Suisse
The former LSE trader has been spearheading Credit Suisse’s dark pool strategy. - Richard Evans, Morgan Stanley
The former Citigroup star is heading up Delta One at Morgan Stanley. - Hirander Misra, Algo Technologies
The former Chi-X COO is branching out with a new low latency vendor. - Natan Tiefenbrun, Turquoise
The outspoken commercial director is in charge of clients for the LSE’s Turquoise.
Most Influential Woman in Trading & Technology
- Niki Beattie, Market Structure Partners
Beattie has consistently spoken up in the interests of competition and efficient market structures. - Diana Chan, EuroCCP
The clearing house chief executive has been driving though interoperability in European clearing. - Mireille Dyrberg, Trioptima
the chief executive of the European business at ICAP-owned TriOptima has helped deliver a global interest rate swap database. - Susanne Kloess, Accenture
The Accenture managing partner has worked with many of the world’s largest exchanges. - Caroline Taylor, Goldman Sachs
The GSAM managing director runs trading on behalf of the asset manager.
Best Chief Technology Officer
- David Rutter, deputy CEO of electronic brokerage at ICAP
The inter-dealer broker has been working hard on technology services. - Florian Miciu CTO at Chi-X Europe
Chi-X, with Bats, remain the benchmarks IT excellence in European trading venues. - Paul O’Donnell, COO at Bats Europe
The Bats COO is aiming to make that system the fastest in Europe. - Antoine Shagoury, CIO at London Stock Exchange
Shagoury may be relatively new to the exchange but he is charged with overhauling the group’s systems. - Stanley Young, CEO at NYSE Technologies
Euronext has come a long way in the past year to redefine it as tech-savvy, efficient market.
