Auerbach Grayson, New York, and securities technology firm Cross Border Exchange Corp. (Crossbordex), New York, announced today “one-stop” member-owned electronic cross-border trading platform that is capable of executing and clearing securities orders in virtually every market in the world.
Called AXES, the Internet-based system is a joint venture of Auerbach Grayson and Crossbordex, and will be launched during the first quarter of 2003.
AXES will provide continuous round-the-clock online trading for broker-dealer members of Auerbach Grayson’s international network, the largest network of its kind in the world with member firms in 83 countries. A special feature of AXES is that every member firm in the Auerbach Grayson network has been invited to take an equity stake in the trading system and, to-date, more than 50 firms have already agreed to subscribe.
Another distinctive feature is that AXES will operate on a multilateral basis, allowing each member firm to become a global broker in its own country and trade for its clients throughout the world. This is a major breakthrough because, until now, the Auerbach Grayson network has operated on a unilateral basis – solely on behalf of U.S-based institutions trading in the international markets.
David S. Grayson, AXES Director and Managing Director of Auerbach Grayson, stated: “This is a timely opportunity to implement an Internet-based global solution. AXES will greatly enhance the efficiency of the current order entry, trade execution and settlement monitoring process for cross-border trading. AXES will also help to relieve stresses to current trading models caused by ever-increasing international trading volumes.”
“Moreover,” added Grayson, “the multi-directional trading capabilities of AXES make it a truly cross-border system because every one of our 83 member firms will now be able to trade in any other member’s market. To be able to trade in more than 80 different markets means that you have access to virtually every viable securities market in the world. That spells tremendous opportunities for our member firms, both large and small.”
As AXES is implemented, it will give the network’s member firms a faster and more efficient service in emerging markets as far and wide as Argentina and Chile, Botswana and South Africa, Israel and Palestine, Morocco and Turkey, Korea and the Philippines, while also serving the major markets like Germany and the United Kingdom, and other markets around the world.
During the development phase, member firms have expressed strong interest in using AXES to expand their coverage beyond traditional regional and national boundaries. Acknowledging this, Peter Eisenberger, AXES Director and Director for Strategic Planning at Crossbordex, says: “The ultimate solution to cross-border order execution and the entire trade management process lies in having an all-encompassing global approach, rather than separate regional and national systems – and that’s what AXES will accomplish.”
In Morocco, for example, AXES member firm Upline Securities is going to use the system to expand outside the firm’s Morocco franchise by connecting existing clients in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia to the facilities offered by AXES. Explaining Upline’s initiative, Jalal Houti, Managing Director and a founder of the firm, says: “Being Internet-based and borderless, AXES will allow us to execute orders for our clients around the world, no matter where they are located geographically.”
The special talents of Auerbach Grayson member firms will also be tapped. In Turkey, for example, member firm Ata Invest, utilizing its Tradesoft unit, will become the software provider of choice for Network members who need front office or back office assistance to connect with the AXES system. To help coordinate this service efficiently on a worldwide basis, Ata Investment will assign its own sales personnel to AXES headquarters in New York.
Commenting on this software initiative, Korhan Kurdoglu, Ata Invest Chairman, says: “Not only are all members taking an ownership stake in AXES, we are also lending our individual talents to its development, and Ata Invest’s extensive software knowledge is a good example of this.”