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execute with the bank, as much as possible. “One of the advantages of having a certain market share is the ability to internalise trade flow and reduce the market impact clients have when they execute.”
Te use of mobile and tablet applications, for Ward, has not developed to quite the extent that was initially expected outside the retail market. While Deutsche Bank provides research on tablets and mobile, replacing a good deal of the paper process, electronically, there has been very little use of in-execution functionality and the new technology has not displaced its standard desktop/web-based research access. “We are definitely picking and choosing the ways in which we are applying mobile technology, and clients seem to be doing the same,” he says.
Te trend is away from product-based development and towards client-driven solutions, and today, it is critical to the success of e-FX. An important part of Deutsche Bank’s strategy is making its technology work with their customers’ particular workflow. A lot of users will combine execution across various platforms, and, in some cases, have execution algorithms or very specific order workflows, and then, post-trade, have more than one STP processes - and they want to be able to use this is in a way that is efficient and error-free. Ward says: “A big part of what we do is making an increasingly heavy amount of data,
and a variety of transactions, easier and easier to use the way that clients intend.”
Getting customer feedback
Last month, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets launched its redesigned, functionally-rich e-commerce platform, Arena. Rob Garwood, head of FX Sales at Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets, says the increasing competition in FX means that customers are rightly becoming more demanding and more aware of the products and services available to them. For this reason, Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets set-up a customer advisory board from day one when designing Arena. He says: “Te idea was to get customers, the real users of FX platforms, to help us design our new e-platform, Arena. Having the ability of demonstrating new features, design ideas and interface to trusted customers and getting their objective feedback has played an essential role in our development process.”
While Arena delivers on execution Garwood says that the bank’s focus was also to include all the economics and market strategy research produced by its chief economist, Trevor Williams, and his team, into a single platform. “Tis includes written and video content. In addition, we included extensive charting capabilities and news into this ‘one view’ of the market so that Arena can address our clients’ pre-trade needs in one platform. We are also including sophisticated risk analytical tools which will help customers with their hedging decisions. Clients can also see all their trades with Lloyds in one single view - the blotter, which includes both online and voice-driven trades. We are also developing our transaction banking capabilities so that soon, customers will be able to view their account balances and eventually be able to execute payments, conduct cash flow analysis via Arena.”
Rob Garwood
“Having the ability of demonstrating new features, design ideas and interface to trusted customers and getting their objective feedback has played an essential role in our development process.”
82 | october 2011 e-FOREX
Te Arena platform is designed to address the needs of many types of customers - from small and medium size enterprises to large multinationals and financial institutions. Terefore, customisation was always a significant focus for Lloyds. Te bank delivers customisation by enabling them to personalise the Arena interface and through tailored, modular workspaces specific to client segments. In this way, Garwood says, clients’ workspaces on their desktops will contain only the information that they place a premium on.
In building Arena, emerging web based technologies that help optimise desktop trading space and enhance the user experience, have been a big focus for Lloyds Bank Corporate Markets. Says Garwood: “Te fact that
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