Atrium Continues FX Expansion on Wave of North American, European Growth

Atrium Network’s addition of FXCM to its list of foreign exchange connections is part of the French connectivity provider’s ongoing expansion both in terms of asset class and geography. FXCM will use Atrium’s extranet to connect its North Bergen, New Jersey, data centre to Atrium points of presence (POPs) in the New York/New Jersey metro area.

The Atrium connection will allow FXCM to offer its clients access to the range of liquidity pools on the Atrium Network, through a single point of connectivity. Atrium joins a number of connectivity providers used by FXCM.

According to Ivan Brightly, CIO of FXCM, using providers like Atrium means that, “If a venue moves or closes down, Atrium Network simply transfers a seamless connection so participants trading efforts are never inconvenienced. Additionally, Atrium Network’s use of multi-gigabit connectivity means additional participants and bandwidth can be allocated quickly without carrier delays.”

For its part, Atrium has been investing in building collocated points of presence within important financial markets data centres throughout Europe, and North and South America. It has also been expanding the asset class mix of its network connectivity beyond the classic equities markets to other instruments, including foreign exchange.

Emmanuel Pellé, COO at Atrium Network, describes the addition of low-latency connections to FX market destinations like FXCM as “a key differentiator” for Atrium. The company is seeing increased demand for complex cross-asset class trading. Its intention is to provide customers with a simple connection to many pools of FX liquidity, giving them the ability to handle current trading volumes but with the scalability to accommodate future requirements.

Atrium is seeing growing demand in a number of key areas. Head of marketing Des Peck says uptake of high frequency trading in Europe and North America is boosting demand for high-performance connectivity.

In North America, a series of data centre moves in the New York/New Jersey metro area is helping to drive demand for a single point of connection to execution venues as they change the location of their matching engines. Indeed, such as the level of activity that Atrium has relocated its other C-level Emmanuel – CEO and CTO Emmanuel Carjat – to New York as part of its North American expansion.

In Canada, the fragmentation of liquidity between several new execution venues in Toronto is spurring interest there. Peck cites the impact of new venues Chi-X Canada (part of Instinet's Chi-X Global), Pure Trading (owned by CNSX), Alpha Trading (owned by BMO Capital Markets, Canaccord Capital, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, CIBC World Markets, Desjardins Securities, National Bank Financial, RBC Capital Markets, Scotia Capital, TD Securities) and Omega ATS (which is 60%-owned by BMRS, backers of the European Quote MTF, as well as Tactico and MarLar Group).
“Canada is one area that’s not suffering from MTF fatigue,” he says. With Canadian banks’ continued strong balance sheets, and Toronto’s proximity to the New York and Chicago markets, practitioners are making use of the choice of liquidity pools beyond incumbent Canadian exchange TSX Group.

Peck reckons Atrium’s experience in the US marketplace – where 10 gigabit pipes are increasingly common to deal with the high-volume feeds like Opra, NYSE, CQS, Nasdaq TotalView, Bats FastPitch and DirectEdge – helps it “build to the highest common denominator.” Catering to the most demanding clients allows the company to support offerings for all user types, he says.

Closer to home in Europe, Atrium has been working to expand its offerings with connections to NYSE Euronext’s Liffe marketplace. The shift of NYSE Euronext’s markets to the exchange group’s new Basildon data centre this autumn will also spark demand for connectivity solutions.

The Nordic marketplace is also “getting very interesting,” says Peck. Since Nasdaq OMX switched over earlier this year to its Inet platform, from the incumbent Saxxess system, trade size has gone down and volumes have risen, Peck says.

As Nasdaq continues to migrate its other Nordic markets to Inet, more interest from high frequency traders is expected. Indeed, says Peck, there has been significant interest in collocation facilities at Nasdaq’s new Stockholm data centre, and participants are seeking connections from there to other European markets.