ICAP Moves, Moneyline Telerate Stays

When interdealer broker ICAP's lease was up for its London office, the firm opted not to renew. While ICAP didn't keep its office lease, it did opt to keep its long-time market-data partner, Moneyline Telerate.

ICAP will be installing the vendor's products at 700 positions in its new Broadgate, London location. Moneyline's market-data distribution and integration system, TRS, will provide ICAP with a dealing-room platform. The brokers will also get Moneyline's Active8 desktops, an upgraded version of what they were previously using.

Lance Fisher, ICAP's deputy global chief information officer, says that the office move gave ICAP the opportunity to re-evaluate its market-data provider. The firm examined Reuters RMDS, but opted to stay with Moneyline. "It was a good chance to change the technology and upgrade to the latest they had to offer," he adds.

While Fisher notes that Moneyline's MTRS and Reuters' RMDS "both are good quality platforms, "MTRS was the right choice due to the firm's immediate moving plans. "If we wanted to switch to RMDS, we would have had to migrate to it and then move," he explains. "The time and scale of doing all of that would have taken too long."

In addition, Fisher says MTRS' newest version is in line with the strategic vision of ICAP. "We've been changing our technology on the dealing floor, migrating from Windows 2000 to Windows XP," he says. "(The new MTRS version) works better with Windows XP."

While brokers can tend to adjust poorly to change, Fisher is reassured that while the operational benefits have increased, the ICAP users won't be deterred by the updates to the system. "From a broker's point of view, there won't be a significant difference, just a new look and feel."

The updated Moneyline installation is expected to be complete by May, when ICAP plans to move into its new offices. Fisher says that, while the prime directive is to install MTRS and Active8 for the front office, ICAP will look into deploying the Moneyline Connect Toolkit, a collection of APIs that offers customization of applications on top of MTRS, and distribution of market data and other services beyond the trading room.

Besides its market-data services, Fisher says that ICAP's brokers will find many other technological upgrades in their new offices. ICAP has installed a new voice-dealing system, and upgraded PCs with dual flat screens, among other aspects.