Last year’s edition of The TRADE’s Execution Management Systems Survey suggested that overall buy-side respondents were largely satisfied with their EMS providers, however clear pain points remain.
Specifically, scores decreased only slightly when it came to opinions on EMS providers from the record results of 2023. The 2024 iteration saw an overall survey average of 5.91, which was only 3 basis points less than the record setting overall average of 5.94, which was achieved in 2023.
This was echoed by only subtle changes in almost every single category that was assessed by the survey.
However, notably, respondents highlighted that the largest pain point was product development – the lowest scoring category in the survey last year.
Product development was also the category which saw the largest year-on-year decline in rating, dropping from 5.66 in 2023 to 5.52 in 2024.
The buy-side told The TRADE that their providers have significant opportunities to enhance their solution capabilities and improve their products, with this being highlighted as a key area for improvement among providers.
The second lowest score in last year’s survey was overall cost of operation, which was down from 5.71 to 5.65 in 2024; emphasising the growing concern over cost that traders face with increasing demand to cover multi-asset trading and investments with tighter budgets.
The third lowest score was ease of integration to internal systems, totaling 5.70 in 2024. However, it is worth noting that even though this was the third lowest score overall, this category was up from 5.62 in both 2023 and 2022, suggesting improved satisfaction from buy-side users.
Read more: Beyond the Data: No let-up on buy-side frustrations over EMS integration
Looking at the more positive results of the survey, reliability and availability remained the highest rated category last year, achieving the exact same score of 6.38 when compared to 2023.
Elsewhere, among the ‘Very Good’ ratings – with scores above 6.0 – were FIX capabilities (6.18), latency (6.13), breadth of broker algorithms (6.05) and client service personnel (6.01).
The largest overall increases in scores year-on-year were seen in ease of integration to internal systems (+0.08) and breadth of asset class coverage (+0.03). It is worth highlighting the growth in ease of integration to internal system score, especially given that in the 2023 iteration of this survey, it was the lowest rated category overall.
The improvement could also be attributed to the trend of buy-side firms looking to more efficiently integrate their front-to-back transactional systems.
Despite overall satisfaction among the buy-side over their EMS providers, the survey does suggest areas of improvement. To remain ahead of the pack, cost and product development have been highlighted as key areas of improvement to continue to meet buy-side expectations.
The TRADE’s annual EMS Survey focuses its profile on buy-side respondents with hands on experience with trading technology. The mix of traders, portfolio managers and technology personnel provide a rich perspective on the use of EMS solutions and the impact on the overall front-office business.
The full 2024 survey can be accessed here. The 2025 edition will launch participation on 1 May.