Looking to juice its trade-cost analysis technology and client list, TradingScreen acquired Citi’s multi-broker, post-trade TCA product BECS for an undisclosed price.
Citi, which acquired BECS in April 2004, is retaining the pre-trade analytics product within its suite of services.
TradingScreen, developer of the execution management system TradeSmart, said it now holds the exclusive license for the post-trade analytics of BECS, or Best Execution Comparison Services. TradingScreen will migrate BECS’s post-trade analytics customers over to its own TCA-in-a-Box and phase out the Citi TCA product, said Robert Kay, TradingScreen’s head of analytics.
"It will give us an entrée to a number of clients who have no relation to TradingScreen at the moment," Kay said. He declined to disclose how many BECS customers there are.
BECS and TCA-in-a-Box share similar technology, as far as database software and presentation layout go. But TCA-in-a-Box will adapt features of BECS’s online reporting system, including some graphics capabilities, industry classes, market capitalization breakdowns, among others. And TCA-in-a-Box will see some upgrades this year, Kay said. It will come with real-time TCA. It will also see an extension of its multi-asset class functionality, which includes exchange-traded futures, fixed income and foreign exchange, alongside equities.
"We, as a firm, are quite determined to achieve a higher profile in the TCA and analytics space," Kay said.
Under Citigroup Global Markets, BECS was fully owned, but managed independently.
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