OMX Debuts New Exchange Platform

STOCKHOLM—OMX has launched the latest generation of its exchange platform, dubbed Genium, OMX officials tell DWT.

The new platform provides "support for open standards" as well as a "building-block design that will make development more effective," says Anders Fridlund, senior vice president of products for the Nordic exchange operator and technology provider.

Genium supports C++ and Java programming languages and runs on Linux.

"As far as possible, it is based on open standards to avoid any type of vendor lock-ins," which allows the software to run on a choice of chipsets, says Fridlund.

In terms of operational and development costs, the platform will offer significantly reduced cost of ownership compared to current products, says an OMX spokesperson, who declines to comment on the software license pricing.

The system architecture "isolates business functionality from non-functional features, such as failover," says Fridlund. This should allow market-center executives to add new instruments or incorporate changes to market rules without requiring much support from technical experts.

For example, the market structure for a dark liquidity pool could be supported as easily as a central limit order book-driven trading system. This type of flexibility could be well received by new entrants to the trading landscape, says Fridlund.

The FIX protocol is another key component of the new systems design, and OMX has worked in collaboration with trading technology vendor Orc Software in this respect.

"We'll be moving toward using FIX as the native API since it's the fastest way to build the API and we want to make sure that using FIX shouldn't add latency," says Fridlund.

Because the platform also supports post-trade services, other standards are due to be incorporated. "We are definitely looking at FIX when it comes to the interface between trading and post trade, but other standards, such as FpML and ISO 15022, will also be incorporated," says Fridlund.

Initially, Genium will support cash equities, equity derivatives and fixed income. OMX also plans to expand coverage to include other assets, such as commodities and foreign exchange.

The vendor is not looking to replace its existing product range with the new product, but will focus new sales and marketing efforts on the Genium platform.

"We will definitely continue to support and invest in our existing products, but naturally, over time, Genium will be our core system for any new sales," says Fridlund.

Although OMX officials decline to comment on any specific client interest, Project Turquoise, a bank-led consortium that is yet to name a technology partner, could be a likely target client, say sources familiar with the situation.