Turquoise

When nine major investment banks got together to create a new pan-European trading exchange they needed to deliver the fast, resilient and secure connectivity with ultra low latencies that members demanded. They chose Colt to help them do it.

As Yann L'Huillier, Chief Technology Officer for Turquoise said, “We are very pleased to add Colt to our list of network providers. Our market participants now have a diversified offering from a network access and independent software vendor standpoint.”

Colt is connected to the Turquoise trading platform so that we can offer financial services companies low latency connectivity to this new European equities trading venue. We can offer banks, hedge funds, clearing houses and market data providers low latency connectivity using our award-winning Ethernet services.

What’s this new European equities trading venue and how has it come about?

New competition regulations in the European trading market have resulted in the rise of new electronic exchanges or organisations known as "Liquidity Pools". This new breed of exchange benefits from the MiFID competition ruling requiring banks to prove client stock trading has been executed at the most competitive rates.

Turquoise Trading is one of the new liquidity pool London exchanges to enter the market. It is an independent trading exchange backed by BNP Paribas, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldmann Sachs, Merill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Société Généralé and UBS. Designed to compete with incumbent exchanges and alternative venues, Turquoise Trading differentiates on technology, competitiveness and the quality of its exchange services.

Where does Colt fit into all this and why is it important for financial services companies?

The new exchanges such as Turquoise Trading require low latency connectivity to attract banks to their services. Colt has been selected as a supplier because of the ultra-low latency connectivity we are able to provide. We are providing a point to multi-point solution to offer Turquoise customers fast, resilient and secure connectivity to the open pan-European trading platform.

With the new Turquoise solution, financial organisations will have high-speed access to Turquoise open trading platforms enabling faster response times and rapid turn-around on trades.  It will also allow them to demonstrate compliance with the new trading regulations and to prove that client's trades have been made at the best possible price.

A recent poll of our investment banking customers earlier this year confirmed the importance of low latency to their electronic trading activities. All of those who took part rated latency as either ‘critical’ or ‘very important’ to successful electronic trading of securities and ninety per cent said they expect to invest in reducing it in 2008.

Colt has extensive experience in service provision to the financial sector.  Our network underpins 20 Stock Exchanges enabling our financial customers to access their data rapidly and securely throughout Europe.  We host 7 Exchanges in Colt data centre facilities and provide connectivity to the world’s largest 25 financial services companies and 67% of the top 100 European banks.

For more information or enquiries about connecting to Turquoise Trading through Colt, please contact turquoiseenquiries@colt.net.

To learn more about Turquoise Trading, visit their website.