Francesco Margini
ION Markets has expanded its cleared derivatives offering with XTP, a front-to-back product suite providing real-time insights into net positions, margins, risk, analytics, commissions and more.
“Record trading volumes, persistent market volatility and sudden shifts in valuations have challenged the derivatives industry to an unprecedented degree,” said Francesco Margini, chief product officer – cleared derivatives at ION Markets, speaking to The TRADE.
“We are continually seeing new peaks in intraday volatility and volumes, both of which are the ultimate concerns for firms and traders operating in the space. In these complex conditions, fragmented legacy software and manual, antiquated operational processes have exposed their limits. The status quo is no longer sustainable for several firms who are now looking to transform their operations to manage risk effectively and process their business at scale.
“Our customers recognise the significant value delivered by an automated, integrated front-to-back platform that can seamlessly process their business in real-time and produce actionable insights on all client activity across execution, clearing and settlement.”
The XTP cleared derivatives product suite now includes the JANUS risk management and Clarus CHARM analytics solutions, broadening the functionality available to clients.
The group has been working towards a single platform for its expansion, and as such, is rebranding its suite of cleared derivatives products under the XTP brand.
“We’ve seen strong demand across our customers for solutions that can fully automate the execution and post-trade workflow and generate in real-time an aggregate view of client positions, liquidity, and risk across exchange-traded derivatives (ETDs) and over the counter (OTC) derivatives, given the convergence of these classes in recent years,” Margini added.
“Much of our work at ION centres on innovation through re-engineering and integration: as part of our product strategy, we concluded that we could best meet the demands of our derivatives customers by bringing together sophisticated tools developed by the likes of Clarus Financial Technology and LIST, to evolve our already popular execution and post-trade offering, XTP. With the integration of the Charm (Clarus) and Janus (LIST) products into the XTP front-to-back suite, we have created a powerful platform meeting all key customer requirements and catering for future needs.”