Instinet Adds Multi-Strategy to Commission Management Tool

Among several enhancements in the release, the most significant is the addition of multi-strategy functionality, which enables users to view budgets and balances on a sub-account level and is useful for buy-side firms that allocate vendor charges across multiple funds or make credit support annex (CSA) payments on a fund-level basis. Sub-account information can be accessed via a drop down menu on the welcome page, with customizable designations that may be set by fund name, portfolio manager, analyst, account, sector, etc.

"The challenges associated with compressed commission pools continue to add pressure to the soft dollar budgeting and administration process," says Jonathan Kellner, head of Americas at Instinet. "Since Plazma is at its core a broker-neutral workflow management solution, we worked with our clients to improve efficiency by adding the ability to track and manage payments on a sub-account level."

Plazma, with its budgeting and broker voting functionality, underpins Instinet's entire commission management offering, which in 2011 processed over 30,000 invoices globally worth nearly $300 million.