KX Technology Selected by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to Power Next Generation e-FX Infrastructure

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is the latest bank to turn to KX to meet its advanced trading, analytics and risk management requirements, extending Kx’s market-leading presence in Foreign Exchange.

KX, a division of First Derivatives plc, announces that it has been selected by Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to build and manage its next generation e-FX platform. Under a multi-year agreement, KX will provide Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and its clients with a solution that delivers superior electronic execution, broad distribution capabilities, algorithmic trading and effective risk management supported by advanced real-time pre and post trade analytics.

Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation is now live with Phase One and is already benefiting from tighter spreads, deeper liquidity and higher fill rates. The solution is built on three components – KX for Flow, Algo Risk Management and FX Analytics – that are key elements of KX’s leading e-FX trading platform. These combine sophisticated order management and pricing techniques with customised trading algorithms and distribution of rich liquidity to multiple market channels, enabling Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation to further increase its customer reach.

At the core of KX technology is the world class kdb+ database engine, which powers state-of-the-art transaction analytics and visualization, offering unique business and customer insights across the trade lifecycle, while ensuring unrivalled speed and performance across the platform.

The solution represents an integral part of Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation’s FX ecosystem and enables the bank to rapidly deliver a comprehensive market-leading service to meet the needs of its dealers and customers alike.

Katsuhiko Yano, Joint General Manager, Global Markets Engineering at Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation commented: “KX was a natural choice for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and is well placed to provide us with a flexible, scalable and high-performance technology that easily integrates with our existing systems and provides us with a foundation for our continued growth and expansion in e-FX trading. KX’s ability to deliver a highly flexible platform supported by a local Japanese presence and global reach will enable us to take advantage of many new opportunities for Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and our clients.”

Patrick Brazel, Chief Commercial Officer of Kx commented: “We are very pleased to partner with Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation on this strategic initiative. Our e-FX solutions deliver rich functionality informed by many years of FX domain expertise and powered by the world-leading performance of KX technology. This combination is delivering important benefits for our clients and establishing KX as a key technology provider to the e-FX market.”

About KX
KX is a division of First Derivatives, a global technology provider with more than 20 years of experience working with some of the world’s largest finance, technology, retail, pharma, manufacturing and energy institutions. KX technology, incorporating the kdb+ time-series database, is a leader in high-performance, in-memory computing, streaming analytics and operational intelligence. KX delivers the best possible performance and flexibility for high-volume, data-intensive analytics and applications across multiple industries. The Group operates from 15 offices across Europe, North America and Asia Pacific, including its headquarters in Newry, and employs more than 2,400 people worldwide.
For more information about Kx please visit www.kx.com. For general enquiries, write to info@kx.com. For press inquiries, write to pr@firstderivatives.com.

About Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC)
Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) and its group companies offer a broad range of financial services centered on banking. They are also engaged in the leasing, securities, credit card, investment, mortgage securitization, venture capital and other credit related businesses.