Wematch, which provides web-based matching and negotiation tools to traders, is aiming to expand across products, asset classes and geographies in the next year.
Joseph Seroussi, chief executive of Wematch, told Markets Media that the adoption of technology in trading is still very low.
Joseph Seroussi, Wematch
“There is a gap between the use of tech that we see in everyday life and in the trading space, which is still using Excel spreadsheets,” he added. “As such, there are huge cost savings to be made from integrating technology into this area.”
Seroussi continued that Wematch uses technology to give traders the flexibility of negotiating by phone while transitioning to electronic trading. The Wematch web-based user interface can be customised to any asset class and provides workflow and audit tools to improve the matching and negotiation process.
“They get a clear picture of the data they have given to the market and APIs connect to pre and post-trade systems and vendors,” he said.
Last month Wematch added euro interest rate swaps as its latest live product. The platform went live with a initial group of 10 banks matching and negotiating euro IRS curves, butterflies, and basis structures, and the firm said a dozen more were in the process of on-boarding.
Although interest rate swaps have largely transitioned to an electronic market, there is a still a significant amount of business conducted by voice traders according to Wematch.
Gregory Mimoun, Wematch
Gregory Mimoun, co-chief executive of Wematch, said in a statement: “We have worked closely with the bank dealers to develop and deliver the platform and functionality they need. Their input has driven our design and their connectivity and use of Wematch is now driving very strong liquidity flow across a range of asset classes.”
Working with banks
JP Morgan selected Wematch Interest Rates to join the bank’s in-residence fintech programme in November last year. The scheme help start-ups looking to commercialise ideas that solve real problems in financial services.
Pasquale Cataldi, head of fixed income execution services at JP Morgan, said in a statement: “It is exciting to see a small group of market experts have the chance to build a product that can significantly impact the bottom line of large banks while creating a platform that can reduce operational and conduct risks.”
In addition Societe Generale Global Markets Incubator chose Wematch Equity Derivatives, and five others fintechs, to join its market activities open innovation platform in February this year.
Seroussi said: “Equity derivatives went live at the end of last year and we will be adding single stock options in the second half of this year.”
He continued that Wematch Securities Lending went live in 2017 and there are 39 banks and more than 600 users on the platform.
“Over the next 12 months we will focus on adding new interest rate swaps and currencies,” added Seroussi. “We then want to expand across asset classes and open a US office towards the end of 2020.”
