Bank of America Merrill Lynch will transfer its InstaQuote execution management system to the newly formed REDI Holdings, in which it has a stake.
The news follows the announcement last week that Goldman Sachs is spinning off its REDI trading technology unit to the newly formed REDI Holdings. Goldman and Merrill are part of a group of five broker-dealers and one private equity investor to take a stake in the new vendor. Barclays, Citadel Securities and BNP Paribas are the other brokers.
REDI Holdings’ main asset is the REDIPlus execution management system. The technology allows traders to access algorithms and route orders to trading venues and brokers. REDI also operates a broker-dealer, REDI Global Technologies.
Merrill’s InstaQuote clients will be migrated to REDI “in an orderly fashion,” according to Merrill. All of the broker’s algorithms and routes will be immediately available and can be utilized by all REDIPlus users. “We look forward to merging the technology from InstaQuote with REDI so clients can continue to leverage our liquidity and trading,” Ashok Krishnan, Merrill’s head of global execution services, said in a statement.
In addition to REDI, Merrill will continue to support clients with a wide variety of EMS platforms based on their trading preference, the company said.
Barclays already offers its execution products via the REDIPlus platform for certain asset classes, according to a spokesperson. Under the new arrangement, “REDIPlus will simply be offered as an additional EMS to the ones that we already use,” a Barclay’s spokeman said.
Barclays hasn’t owned an execution management system since its sold off its RealTick platform to ConvergEx in 2010.
In a statement, Thomas Chippas, Barclays’ head of prime services execution, said: “We plan to make our award-winning BARX offering available through the REDIPlus platform as an additional channel for our clients.” BARX is a suite of execution products that Barclays’ customers can access via FIX or direct market access, or through a third party EMS.
