New York, February 14, 2011 – GFI Group Inc. (NYSE: “GFIG”) announced today the launch of FENICS Trader, a single point of access to multi-bank liquidity for foreign exchange options. This pioneering technology facilitates independent FX options price discovery, offering a “many-to-many” venue for bilateral trading and execution.
FENICS Trader is supported by 9 of the world’s leading banks, with others to go live in early 2011. Live liquidity banks include BNP Paribas, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Credit Suisse, UBS and Unicredit Bank AG.
During a 6 month soft launch period, trade volumes grew impressively, rising to over 120 trades per month. This soft launch involved 20 of GFI FENICS’ clients.
FENICS Trader allows clients to calculate indicative prices based on banks’ proprietary volatility surfaces. Using “Request for Quote” (RFQ) technology clients receive a tradable price from their preferred liquidity bank. Once the price is agreed, electronic execution is completed on a bi-lateral basis. At present FENICS Trader supports European vanilla and simple two-legged structures. Trades can be priced in volatility or premium terms. FENICS Trader is available to clients via the FENICS Professional™ platform.
Richard Brunt, Global Head of GFI FENICS stated: “This is a very important step forward for GFI FENICS and for the FX options dealing community. FENICS Trader is the first many-to-many FX options execution platform, and the initial volumes have been hugely encouraging showing that this initiative is well supported by the market and valued by GFI FENICS’ client base, and is particularly relevant in light of the regulatory environment.”
Brunt added: “FENICS Trader was a logical enhancement to the FENICS Professional workflow solution. It removes the need for duplicate trade entry and manual price discovery via the telephone or electronic messaging.” Brunt continues: “As more liquidity providers join the community, our clients will have a wider choice of trading partners, accessible from a single, industry standard application.”
FENICS Professional is a suite of pricing, trading, risk management and STP components allowing customers to control, monitor and oversee every aspect of FX option trading and lifecycle management from a single interface.
GFI FENICS has been providing leading FX derivatives software since 1987. Its products are licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide – financial institutions and corporations – with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions. FENICS Trader additionally provides clients worldwide with access to a liquidity pool in order to bilaterally transact currency options.
About GFI Group Inc. www.GFIgroup.com
GFI Group Inc. (NYSE “GFIG”) is a leading provider of wholesale brokerage, electronic execution and trading support products for global financial markets. GFI Group Inc. provides brokerage services, market data, trading platform and analytics software products to institutional clients in markets for a range of fixed income, financial, equity and commodity instruments.
Fenics Software Limited is a subsidiary of GFI Group Inc.
Headquartered in New York, GFI was founded in 1987 and employs more than 1,800 people with additional offices in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Cape Town, Santiago, Bogotá, Dubai, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Calgary, Los Angeles, Englewood (NJ) and Sugar Land (TX). GFI Group Inc. provides services and products to over 2,400 institutional clients, including leading investment and commercial banks, corporations, insurance companies and hedge funds. Its brands include GFISM, GFInet®, CreditMatch®, GFI ForexMatch®, EnergyMatch®, FENICS®, Starsupply®, Amerex®, Trayport®, and Kyte®.
Forward-looking statement
Certain matters discussed in this press release contain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. When used in this press release, the words “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “may,” “might,” “intend,” “expect” and similar expressions identify such forward-looking statements. Actual results, performance or achievements could differ materially from those contemplated, expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements contained herein. These forward-looking statements are based largely on the expectations of GFI Group Inc. (the “Company”) and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. These include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties associated with: economic, political and market factors affecting trading volumes; securities prices or demand for the Company’s brokerage services; competition from current and new competitors; the Company’s ability to attract and retain key personnel, including highly-qualified brokerage personnel; the Company’s ability to identify and develop new products and markets; changes in laws and regulations governing the Company’s business and operations or permissible activities; the Company’s ability to manage its international operations; financial difficulties experienced by the Company’s customers or key participants in the markets in which the Company focuses its brokerage services; the Company’s ability to keep up with technological changes; uncertainties relating to litigation and the Company’s ability to assess and integrate acquisition prospects. Further information about factors that could affect the Company’s financial and other results is included in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not undertake to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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