The democratisation of technology in financial services: empowering traders and driving value

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The democratisation of technology in financial services: empowering traders and driving value

In recent years, much ink has been spilled about the benefits of technology for amateur traders, where platforms like Robinhood have helped open access to the financial markets to Joe and Jane Bloggs.

However, less has been said about an arguably more important democratisation trend within the investment banking sector, one which is putting advanced technology directly into the hands of traders. The use of APIs and automated workflows are empowering traders by enabling them to develop proof of concept (POC) tools before implementing it into our core systems.

The result is more efficient and effective trading, as traders can get on with their core duties rather than needing IT assistance to deal with their requests. For instance, traders routinely use APIs to connect with automated algorithms and their trading broker platform to obtain real-time quotes and pricing data and enact trades.

In some cases, even more is possible. Where APIs are highly intuitive, traders are able to experiment with the technology platform they use to test out new and value-adding functionality.

With Wematch, users connect to our cross-asset environment through plug-and-play, intuitive GUI/APIs and automated workflows to interact with existing market data and find the best trading opportunities. This is a trend we have witnessed firsthand. Société Générale, one of our customers in our fast-growing North American business, is using the Wematch platform to connect clients, trading venues, and third-party vendors for tailored matching, smart negotiation, and streamlined workflow tools.

Carl Degryse, Société Générale ’s VIE trader assistant in New York has been working with our API to feed some of their naturals data into the Wematch Interests Buy/Sell function. Carl was able to implement our API efficiently, over the course of a few days and did so on his own, with no IT assistance. He is working to plug credit checks internal API with Wematch to increase our efficiency.

As in this case, when APIs work effectively they empower traders to take control of technology like never before. With the best APIs, traders can perfect the technology systems they use to better meet their unique needs and enable them to do their jobs better and faster. The task for companies like Wematch is to ensure that our APIs continue to be as easy to use as possible and that they plug into a broad range of capabilities so that traders can solve any and all relevant use cases. We remain committed to this goal.