Tech firm First Derivatives enters Japanese market


16 Apr 2010

The Newry-based financial software provider First Derivatives has announced it is to enter the Japanese market.

The company has signed a contract with Japanese online foreign exchange broker AFT for its software product Delta RealStream. AFT will use Delta RealStream to deliver foreign exchange trading to its institutional and retail clients.

First Derivatives said the contract is a transaction-based agreement, whereby the Irish firm will benefit from a proportion of the revenues generated through the use of the system by AFT’s client base.

Delta RealStream was one of the intellectual property assetsFirst Derivatives acquired when it bought software firm Cognotec earlier this year.

First Derivatives said that since the acquisition it has further invested in the development of Delta RealStream by broadening its functionality, offering the entire platform in Japanese and making it fully compliant with the extensive Japanese regulatory requirements.

Milestone in Japanese ambitions

The firm said the signing of the contract with AFT represents an important milestone in its ambitions to be a major player in the Japanese foreign exchange market.

“It is estimated that the Japanese market accounts for over 25pc of the global retail FX market. The contract with AFT gives First Derivatives the necessary platform to grow its share of this lucrative market,” said First Derivatives Brian Conlon.

“It is also a further endorsement of the decision by First Derivatives to acquire Cognotec, including its talented research and development team. This is the first in a number of major deals that we anticipate signing with leading FX brokers,” he added.

Expanding Asian operations

“The contract with AFT in Japan provides the necessary impetus for First Derivatives to further expand its operations in Asia, building on our existing operations in Australia, China, Singapore and India. The opportunity to cross-sell other First Derivatives software solutions, as well as support and consulting services to Japanese clients is significant. We have a proven business model which works and will apply this to the Japanese market, as we continue to grow our Asian footprint,” said Paul Phillips, Head of APAC Operations at First Derivatives.

Delta RealStream is an integrated platform that enables brokers and banks to offer web-trading to their FX customers. It includes a front-end trading suite, with back-end controls to manage credit risk. It also generates and manages pricing by cleansing, blending and distributing rates through predetermined pricing channels. One of the key features of Delta RealStream is its ability to connect users to multiple pools of liquidity.

Article courtesy of Businessandleadership.com