SunGard Adds Fox River Technology to Consolidated Brokerage

In an effort to "supercharge" its brokerage efforts, SunGard recently consolidated its two broker-dealers into one, called SunGard Brokerage and Securities Services. The Jan. 3 move stemmed in part from a desire to populate its technology across a full spectrum of products, something it was prevented from doing as separate regulated entities. Bringing in Fox River Execution Solutions will help brokerage clients improve execution quality, minimize information leakage and decrease overall execution costs through a single relationship, according to SunGard officials.

"It makes it easier for the customer to interact with us," says Paul Daley, head of new product development at Fox River, which was acquired by SunGard in July of 2010. "They don't have to have one contract with one service with one broker-dealer and a separate contract for another service with a second broker-dealer, all of which are the same broker-dealer. And they can also potentially have a single point of contact as they're talking to us about the variety of different products that they might use from us."

Fox River Execution Solutions includes algorithms, sponsored access, sales trading, and access to an alternative trading system (ATS), Fox River ATS. Its technology helps customers reduce overall latency in reaching external venues, improving fill rates and execution price, officials say. It is intended to provide the buy side with high-frequency trading (HFT) techniques to use in an offensive strategy against such traders.

"By bringing Fox River into its consolidated broker-dealer, SunGard has created a simpler way for us to do business," says Denean Williams, CEO of Cameron Capital Management. "We have worked with the Fox River sales trading team for many years, and we now use all of the Fox River Execution Solutions. Working with this technology and with a SunGard team that delivers exceptional service has helped us customize advanced trading strategies."