Verizon Expands Financial Services Network to Europe

Verizon has expanded its dedicated low-latency trading-infrastructure, previously only available in the U.S., to Europe. The Verizon Financial Services Network, a scalable and secure low-latency product designed for trading and information exchange in the capital markets, is built for brokers, hedge funds, exchanges, asset managers, and pre- and post-trade services providers.

Chandan Sharma, global managing director of Verizon Business' financial services practice, says that the Verizon Financial Services Network was originally built for Nasdaq OMX. "We took the Nasdaq solution and commercialized it for the marketplace," he said in an interview. "This is entirely built for the financial services industry. This is a mission critical system and has 100 percent availability, full redundancy, everything that is required for the capital markets."

Currently, 250 clients are using the network, Sharma says. The Verizon Financial Services Network is available as a standard managed solution, or Verizon's subject matter experts can work alongside clients to customize the solution to support each individual organization's specific business needs. Fully managed global service and support is provided, including around-the-clock monitoring to support reliable data delivery, according to Verizon.

The network is designed to meet certain latency requirements, according to Sharma. However, in some cases, firm's existing infrastructure may already provide equal or better latency, depending on the situation. "We have designed it to guarantee certain latency parameters between certain points in the system," he said in the interview. "In New York City, you might connect directly to a market center. But if you are in Los Angeles, you may benefit by having [the Verizon network] as the way to connect."

The Verizon network also helps firms get away from many point-to-point connections that may be expensive and more difficult to manage than a single aggregated solution, according to Sharma. "This will get away from point to point connections," he said. ""We provide growth and access to different market centers and data providers and as the traffic needs change, we are able to have fast time to market when you are connected to the network."

The Verizon Financial Services Network solution brings together Verizon Business' professional expertise in the development and delivery of communications, IT, information security and network solutions, and the company's experience in servicing many of the world's financial services firms. Verizon Business also provides hosting and co-location solutions, designed to meet the low-latency needs of the financial markets, according to Verizon.

Greg MacSweeney is editorial director of InformationWeek Financial Services, whose brands include Wall Street & Technology, Bank Systems & Technology, Advanced Trading, and Insurance & Technology. View Full Bio