Digital Vega, Spark Systems, in Partnership

FX options e-trading platform Digital Vega has entered a “strategic partnership” with Singapore’s Spark Systems, to offer clients a technology platform for trading the full suite of FX products: options, spot, forwards, swaps and NDF’s.

The firms say the partnership is in response to demand from a broad group of buy- and sell-side users who are looking to access the market using complementary FX trading technology solutions. It is probably also a defence mechanism, likely to be imitated elsewhere, to allow smaller firms to maintain connections to the larger players in the FX industry – many of whom are seeking to reduce their connectivity burden.

This is recognised, albeit obliquely, in a release where the firms say their partnership is targeting what they see as a drive “to increase efficiency amongst financial institutions seeking ways to improve performance by automating more of their FX trading, to reduce costs and gain better insight from the data”.

They add that “inflexible” incumbent platforms are being “reviewed and replaced” with more modern and flexible technology. The latter is an interesting observation, for while there is no doubt that firms are reviewing their connectivity options, concerns remain amongst technology groups that one prolonged impact of the pandemic will be to delay projects aimed at unravelling and rationalising the web of connectivity that has been created. Digital Vega and Spark Systems (along with many others) clearly hope this is not going to be the case.

“In 2020 we have grown significantly in Asia, adding a Singapore office and extending our client relationships in the region,” says Mark Suter, executive chairman and co-founder of Digital Vega. “During this time, we were introduced to Spark Systems by a firm wanting a single platform to access the FX market. We identified significant synergies, as our services are complementary and help to address the growing demand for increased trading efficiency.”

Jason Wang, COO of Spark Systems, adds, “As Singapore strengthens its position as APAC’s trading hub and FX trading continues to grow, we are seeing significant interest from financial institutions in the region for a holistic trading solution.”