Siege, the FX Dark Pool provider, recently announced the launch of its new service NetFix.
This follows the successful first Spot trades which were “completed among a group of early participants on 26th July 2022 using the WMR 4pm Fix.”
NetFix is “an anonymous mechanism designed to match offsetting fixing orders in advance of the publication of an FX benchmark.” Providing fully automated session matching, Banks, Asset Managers, Pension Funds and Corporates “benefit from earlier access to liquidity, zero information leakage and reduced trading congestion within Fix calculation windows.”
Participants remain anonymous as NetFix is “connected to a top tier prime broker bank, which acts as a central counterparty for each matched trade.”
Supporting all currency pairs, NetFix offers “the flexibility of a series of cascading matching rounds for each different fixing, operating at set times, through which offsetting orders are matched.”
Although the fixing rate is unknown until publication of the Fix, “orders filled in NetFix are binding.”
Sang Lee, Head of Products and Strategy at Aite-Novarica, said:
”In the past, fixing workflows resulted in information leakage, which often led to disproportionate market moves immediately before the publication of a Fix benchmark. By offering anonymous matching, participants benefit from getting their orders executed at a Fix price which hasn’t been adversely impacted by speculative traders acting on information leakage.”
Claude Goulet, CEO of Siege, remarked:
“NetFix delivers innovation in Spot FX Fixing, allowing all participants to place orders on an anonymous basis, using different matching rounds before the publication of a Fix. Driven by the needs of our Working Group of banks and buy-side firms, we have launched a service which improves fixing workflows for all parties, cuts transaction costs and delivers high rates of automation using our robust and secure core matching engine and low latency messaging infrastructure.”
He added:
“Our first service, Siege MidPool is already connected to more than 50 buy- and sell-side firms, and most of the major FX trading platforms, so we expect these participants to onboard to NetFix quickly.”
Siege FX operates Dark Pools for FX.
In addition to NetFix it has been in production with Siege MidPool “since February 2021, a fully anonymous continuous Spot matching service at a regulated mid-rate.”