Best e-FX Platform for Corporates: 360T

In common with other players in the foreign exchange industry, corporates are not spared the regulatory net of accountability or shareholders' desire for more clarity around currency and its influence on the business.

Hence, more corporations are using electronic platforms to improve the performance of their investment strategies and hedging activities. Among their go-to providers is 360T, the winner of the 2016 FX Week e-FX Award for Best e-FX Platform for Corporates.

"Corporates are a very interesting and important customer segment in general, and in particular for 360T. They have business activity that requires FX hedging. Therefore, this flow is an important underlying basis for the FX market overall," says Carlo Koelzer, chief executive of 360T Group, and global head of FX at Deutsche Börse Group.

360T's multi-bank, multi-asset trading platform for over-the-counter financial instruments sits at the heart of Deutsche Börse Group's global FX strategy. It offers a full range of streamlined services across the entire trading workflow of FX and short-term money-market asset classes.

360T offers its clients market-leading and very comprehensive reports, which give meaningful information such as execution-quality metrics
Carlo Koelzer, 360T

The platform connects corporate treasurers with more than 200 liquidity providers, including large global market participants, and regional and niche makers. More than 1,500 buy-side client organisations use 360T's network, including global and regional corporate treasuries, which generate more than 70 billion euros on average in daily trading volumes.

There are perks for corporates using electronic venues to trade: greater price transparency; it saves time; and it reduces process risk, whether related to operations, price, markets or liquidity. It also allows corporates to control and support the activities of subsidiaries out of a company's head office or regional hub, while giving the ability to trade various FX products in both offshore and onshore markets.

"Furthermore, 360T offers its clients market-leading and very comprehensive reports, which give meaningful information such as execution-quality metrics," Koelzer says.

Analysing and auditing

As regulation continues to shape market participants' decisions, demand for analysing and auditing processes has grown. Satisfying requirements around transparency, best execution, risk mitigation and analytics has become pivotal for all market participants, including corporates.

"These clear, transparent analytics in turn increase predictability in the execution process or can serve as a qualified basis for any dialogue with liquidity providers," says Koelzer.

For a platform, due to the number of FX trading venues operating in the market, liquidity and functionality are no longer differentiating factors. Instead, the focus has shifted to automated workflows, as well as smart integration, and both pre- and post-trade analytics.

"From the corporates' perspective, since their requirements are indeed peculiar, a wide product range, strong workflow support by technology, internal flow management, and strong reporting and analytics are key factors for them. 360T is highly focused on servicing corporates to [the] best possible extent, delivering and improving [these] components on a consistent basis, and offering cutting-edge solutions for our customers," Koelzer adds.