I’ve received a number of press releases in the past few weeks alerting me to the online capabilities of certain investment banks. Each announcement claims that its online trading platform provides clients (usually private banks) with a great opportunity to streamline their trading activities. I’m not convinced.
Open architecture has been the buzz phrase of the structured products markets for at least the past year. In a climate of open architecture private banks want access to as many online prices as possible – not just the online prices of one bank. They don’t want to have to run all the online platform as doing so will make their lives harder, not easier. Considering this isn’t it time the structurers came together and developed an online platform offering prices by multiple banks?
We will explore these issues in the February issue of Structured Products magazine. In the meantime if you have any thoughts, or know of any plans to develop a one size fits all online trading platform, do let me know.