Deutsche Bank To Sign Global Deal For Reuters Trading Room Products

Deutsche Bank is set to sign a wide-ranging trading room systems purchase agreement with Reuters Holdings PLC. Under the agreement, the West German bank will have the option of buying Reuters equipment at discount prices for installation at its dealing rooms worldwide.

The deal, valued at between $30 million and $40 million, will be a boost to Reuters' trading room systems operation, whose credibility was dented by the rejection of its TRIARCH 2000 data distribution system by National Westminster Bank PLC last year (TST, Oct. 9, 1989).

At the same time, Reuters is extending its marketing agreement with Effix Systemes S.A. to cover more of the French software firm's products. Reuters currently offers Effix's workstation software as an alternative to its own TRIARCH Intelligent Workstation (TST, Nov. 20, 1989).

A spokesman for Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt declines to comment on the bank's pending agreement with Reuters. He says that the bank is a Reuters customer, adding that further major contracts with the vendor are a possibility.

David Morgan, group product leader for Reuters' trading room systems division, also declines to comment on the agreement. "We have a longstanding relationship with Deutsche on the trading room systems front and we've done significant business with them over the past three or four years," he says. "That's continuing and ... there are certain negotiations going on right now. Beyond that ... it's something I'd rather not comment on."

But sources close to Reuters' trading room systems division say the accord will grant Deutsche Bank the option of buying between $30 million and $40 million of TRS products at discounted prices over the next three to four years. They say the so-called umbrella agreement will be supplemented with a number of country- and product-specific deals over the next few months.

Among the Reuters products covered by the agreement, these sources say, will be TRIARCH 2000, featuring the Effix workstation, Reuters' Prism video-switch, the Reuters Position-Keeping Service and turrets supplied by Reuters' L.H.W. Wyatts Brothers Ltd. subsidiary.

The sources say the bank plans to use Reuters' TRIARCH 2000 as its primary data delivery system worldwide. They add that the bank is considering applications programming interface software from a number of vendors, among them Effix, Kapiti PLC and Telerate Systems Inc.'s FXD Development Group subsidiary. The sources say the bank is considering workstations from IBM, DEC and Unisys Corp.

The Deutsche Bank spokesman says that the bank has about 15 trading rooms in West Germany. He declines to estimate the number of Deutsche Bank dealing rooms worldwide, but says its capital markets subsidiary has operations in about 10 countries.

Meanwhile, the Reuters-Effix accord is about to be extended, according sources close to discussions between the two companies. Morgan confirms that "the relationship with Effix is getting closer." He adds: "The relationship between Reuters and Effix has been proving more and more successful... We'll be taking on more Effix products within the TRIARCH 2000 line." He declines to give details.