As the FX market becomes increasingly electronic, the need for improved post-trade processes continues to grow.

Boston, MA, January 6, 2009 – A new report from Aite Group, LLC examines the key trends and challenges facing the FX post-trade market. The report looks at some of the service providers in the FX post-trade arena, and what they are doing to help streamline or improve the post-trade process.

Electronic trading in FX has become the norm, and the emergence of high-frequency trading shops and the burgeoning retail market have driven trading volumes into uncharted territories. However, beyond the front office, where most of the innovations have taken place over the last decade, cracks are appearing that might derail the growth of the FX market in the long run. Growing trading volume has had a negative impact on the back-office, post-trade infrastructure of most active FX firms. Today, FX has one of the highest processing cost structures when compared to other popular financial instruments. Industry-wide efforts aimed at easing the post-trade challenge have been met with limited success due to the lack of both coordination and an overarching strategy.

"As the FX market becomes increasingly electronic, the need for improved post-trade processes continues to grow," says Sang Lee, managing partner with Aite Group and author of this report. "While an outsourced, industry-sponsored post-trade processing infrastructure is closer than ever to becoming a reality, banks are likely to invest heavily in their own back-office FX processing systems. While IT spending is expected to be scarce in 2009, banks will be able to view this as a sound investment in future savings."

This 53-page Impact Report contains 22 figures and three tables. It examines service providers in the FX post-trade arena, including industry utilities, client STP providers, and FX management systems.

Clients of Aite Group's Institutional Securities & Investments service can download the report by clicking on the icon to the right.

Related Aite Group Research:

• Algorithmic Trading in FX: Fad or Reality?
• High-Performance Trading Infrastructure: Cost, Opportunities and Challenges
• Institutional FX Trading Platforms: Old Habits are Hard to Break
• Electronic FX: Welcome to the Banks' Neverland

To purchase this report or
for additional information,
please contact:
Aite Group Sales
Tel: +1.617.338.6050
sales@aitegroup.com