Andrea Marani

OpenMarkets Australia, a digital investing platform with more than 30,000 accounts, is the first to offer clients the ability to invest into companies listed on the National Stock Exchange (NSX) on-the-go via their mobile app OpenMarkets Equix.

The Equix mobile app is now available on Apple and Android devices, opening-up Australia’s second largest stock exchange to their clients and further enhancing the capability of its investment platform.

Equix is specifically designed for self-directed investors and financial advisers wanting fast, responsive, low-cost tools for trading and investing on the Australian securities markets.

OpenMarkets CEO Mr Andrea Marani says: “This is another significant development for OpenMarkets which contributes towards the development of our platform by providing our clients with more investing opportunities through multiple digital channels.

“Our focus is to continue to extend our partner ecosystem and deliver leading financial products and services to the investing community.

“Our clients have expressed interest in accessing companies listed on the NSX, so it was a logical step, with the mobile app making investing that much more convenient.”

NSX CEO, Mr Matthew Loughnan says: “This is a ground breaking event for NSX, with the first mobile app for trading NSX listed securities.  Making it faster, cheaper and easier for trading of NSX listed securities which continues our ability to build a strong alternative exchange in Australia. “

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Andrea Marani

OpenMarkets Australia, a digital ASX trading platform with more than 30,000 retail and intermediary trading accounts, has launched a new trading platform, OpenMarkets Equix.

Available in web and mobile format, Equix is designed to meet the needs of the self-directed investor and financial advisers wanting fast, responsive, low-cost online tools for trading and investing in Australian securities.

Clients can trade ASX-listed equities, warrants and the full suite of exchange-traded products, including ETFs, as well as analyse their portfolio performance, access charts, market depth, create alerts, set up watchlists and download reports and contract notes.

Its click-refresh-live-data version is free, or customers can upgrade to streaming data at a cost.  The mobile app is available on Apple and Android devices.

OpenMarkets CEO Mr Andrea Marani says: “This is a significant development for OpenMarkets and we’ve already received a very positive response from clients.

“The decision to develop a new trading platform came after identifying the need to give clients trading tools that could be customised and integrated into OpenMarkets broader platform ecosystem, such as access to global markets and complementary third-party tools.

“The mobile app really enhances the trading experience by giving our clients on-the-go access to what is happening in the markets. It is also a significant step in delivery and execution of our digital strategy that has mobility as a key focus”, Mr Marani says.

The initial Equix release will be the first of many future product enhancements that will deliver further market-leading trading and data tools to retail and intermediary clients.

The Equix Web version has been built using HTML 5 technology for speed and performance and is designed in a linkable widget-based format with the ability to expand to multiple monitors, allowing users to customise their trade screening.

OpenMarkets Equix has been developed in partnership with and is provided under licence from Quant Edge Pty Ltd, an algorithmic trading technology company headquartered in Hanoi, Vietnam.

“Partnering with Quant Edge will deliver enormous benefits to OpenMarkets. They are extremely responsive to requests and extremely fast at adding new features – exactly the service our clients want and expect,” Mr Marani says.

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Andrea Marani

Digital trading platform OpenMarkets has announced an agreement with Agility Applications (Agility) to provide a suite of technology solutions and services centred around comprehensive data management infrastructure, APIs and middleware.

Agility, which is part of the HUB24 group, provides a broad range of market-leading data integration, technology solutions and delivery services to brokers and wealth management platforms. The services will expand the OpenMarkets offer by providing customer record and transaction data management capabilities, data gateways, adviser tools and dashboards, operational services, web services and reporting.

OpenMarkets CEO Mr Andrea Marani says the agreement with Agility is a “fantastic opportunity” to improve and expand client services.

“Agility has established a solid reputation for delivering customised solutions for financial services clients, which we have leveraged as part our concerted push to personalise and improve our services. OpenMarkets is constantly enhancing its offering, so to have a technology provider that is on the same wavelength is crucial.

“For example, Agility has been able to support our integration with Saxo Capital Markets for international equities trading by accepting data directly from Saxo and our NRI back office system, enabling us to centralise all client transactions (across all markets) in one place.

“At a time when we are seeing growing client interest to trade on international markets, this agreement with Agility will simply make this investment option more convenient.”

Marani adds the Agility agreement will give OpenMarkets access to a new state-of-the-art API infrastructure (Application Programming Interface) via Google’s API platform ‘Apigee’.

Agility founder Craig Apps says: “We are delighted to be partnering with OpenMarkets to deliver a suite of data, API and connectivity solutions.  We believe the OpenMarkets’ open architecture model, coupled with its push for scalable systems, has laid the foundations for it becoming Australia’s most advanced digital trading platform.

“OpenMarkets sets itself apart from other providers with its focus on technology and open systems, which are also core tenets that underpin Agility’s approach to business and technology.

“Agility’s suite of tools, when coupled with OpenMarkets innovative solutions, will create a digital trading platform that will be a market leader.”

Andrew Alcock, Managing Director of HUB24, adds: “We’re delighted that Agility is expanding their client base to include OpenMarkets and leveraging their technology and innovation to provide solutions that will provide value and improve client experience.”

– ENDS –

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Dr Lang – who was CEO of Auggd, a leading provider of augmented and virtual reality platforms and solutions before taking this role – brings impressive credentials to the position, most notably as Head of NASDAQ SMARTS, a trade surveillance and monitoring business that NASDAQ acquired during his tenure as the company’s CTO in 2012.

Before SMARTS, Dr Lang spent 10 years in various technology management roles, mostly in Silicon Valley, producing hardware products in the computer graphics and image processing industry for technology giants such as Silicon Graphics and NVIDIA.

OpenMarkets CEO Mr Andrea Marani says: “From day one, our focus has been on providing quality technological solutions, including open architecture and a collaborative approach to working with a range of businesses across the financial services industry.

“To achieve this, we’ve developed efficient, scalable systems built on modern technological systems.

“So, to appoint someone with Rob’s industry knowledge and experience to drive the IT effort ensures we will continue to develop leading-edge technology to underpin further growth for OpenMarkets and our commercial partners.”

Dr Lang’s role at OpenMarkets will include responsibility for all technology and IT leadership, and, as a member of the senior management team, will provide strategic advice about technological approaches to maximise the company’s opportunity to achieve its business objectives through innovative solutions and partnerships.

Dr Lang says: “I’m really excited to join a business that differentiates itself through technology and is passionate about industry disruption.

“The fact that OpenMarkets is institutionally unaligned and therefore free to open its architecture to third parties and promote a financial services ecosystem for today’s changing world is an exciting concept that opens up an array of commercial opportunities.”

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Andrea Marani

Digital brokerage platform OpenMarkets has taken a crucial step to open up its platform to overseas investors after integrating with Bloomberg’s global multi-asset trading platform, Execution Management System (EMSX).

The agreement with Bloomberg, announced yesterday by OpenMarkets Chief Executive Officer Mr Andrea Marani, will provide OpenMarkets access to the largest community of buy-side traders and portfolio managers in the world, allowing EMSX users globally to direct ASX equity orders to OpenMarkets and receive live order feedback directly at their terminal.

Bloomberg EMSX is an institutional-grade platform used widely in Australia and around the world by investment managers, hedge funds, investment banks and brokers. There are now more than 6,500 broker destinations worldwide on EMSX helping traders and portfolio managers discover liquidity and run broker analytics to determine best execution and trading performance.

Mr Marani says the integration with the Bloomberg EMSX is an essential step in providing liquidity access for overseas investors looking to trade in the Australian equity market.

“This integration with EMSX will allow overseas brokers and traders to monitor and track their orders in real time and benefit from OpenMarkets’ low-cost, best-execution brokerage services.

“It also opens the door to a range of institutional trading business in Australia for OpenMarkets, as well as global brokers wanting access to the Australian equity markets – a natural next step in our strategy of attracting a broader range of financial intermediary clients.

The integration between OpenMarkets and Bloomberg is made possible via FIX © connectivity. FIX (Financial Information exchange) is a global industry protocol for the real-time exchange of information relating to securities transactions and markets.

OpenMarkets is a digital brokerage platform renowned for its connectivity network and integration capabilities with a range of third parties. It is connected to the IRESS platforms and provides integrated execution services to a range of fintech trading platforms such as SelfWealth, Acorns and Six Park, as well as providing data feeds to a range of reporting and administration platforms such as Class, Xplan and Praemium.

OpenMarkets’ trading turnover exceeds $3.5 billion a month.

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Australia’s fastest-growing online stockbroker, OpenMarkets, and multi-asset class trading and investment specialist, Saxo Capital Markets, yesterday announced a reciprocal partnership to provide each other with technology solutions to build upon their respective market leading offerings.

The partnership will allow OpenMarkets’ clients to have access to Saxo’s extensive list of global equities with multi-currency settlement, while Saxo clients will now be able to invest in Australian shares through a Holder Identification Number (HIN) structure.

“This represents the collaboration of two Fintech powerhouses in the online broking industry in Australia,” said Saxo Capital Markets Australia CEO, Ben Smoker.

“We are providing the international equities trading engine and technology to OpenMarkets, giving them access to over 19,000 global stocks across 36 different exchanges.”

For OpenMarkets, the alliance with Saxo allows it to become a truly global trading platform, bypassing significant development time and expense to provide its clients with a broader range of trading options. This includes the ability to:

• Buy and sell exchange-listed securities in global markets, including US, UK and the major European and Asian markets;
• View all assets in one portfolio screen;
• Trade through a single platform, where Australian equities are still maintained on HIN;
• Settle all trades (Australian and international) via the client’s one linked cash account
• Consolidate all transactions and holding data, and feed this data to SMSF and portfolio administration reporting platforms.

Conversely, the integration with OpenMarkets allows Saxo to increase trading activity for global shares through its international equities platform.

On the customer side, Saxo will be able to meet market demand for settlement of Australian equities into HIN from a multi-asset platform. This means that Saxo clients will be able to hold Australian stocks through the HIN structure provided by the ASX’s Clearing House Electronic Subregister System (CHESS), alongside other assets within Saxo’s trading platform.
The alliance between OpenMarkets and Saxo also breaks a historical model in the Australian broking industry, where HIN-based stockbrokers for Australian share trading and custodian-based brokers for international shares have always been segregated.

Saxo and OpenMarkets are effectively bridging this gap by providing the first integrated solution for the Australian market.

“This is an alliance between two like-minded technology brokers that have complementary services and share a win-win philosophy towards third party integration. Our partnership with Saxo will result in us being able to offer trading in global securities from one cross-collateralised cash account and we will do this at competitive brokerage and FX rates,” said OpenMarkets CEO, Andrea Marani.

“This global markets trading offering, coupled with our range of reporting platform data feeds, will go a long way towards meeting the demand we are seeing from the SMSF market looking for global investment diversification.”

“Thanks to our new partner, Saxo will be the first broker to offer a HIN solution on a singular, consolidated multi-asset trading platform. This differentiates us from other multi-asset brokers who also offer access to local shares, but do not have HIN,” Mr Smoker said.

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OpenMarkets launches as new online broker.

The Australian Securities Exchange has welcomed its first new online broker since 2007 following the launch of OpenMarkets.

An independently-owned stockbroker specialising in low-cost online trading solutions, OpenMarkets is a full market participant of the Australian Securities Exchange, National Stock Exchange of Australia, and SIM VSE.  It acquired the licence through its purchase of Sydney-based firm Cameron Stockbroking Ltd in May.

With its own clearing and settlement memberships, OpenMarkets focuses on end-to-end online trading solutions for the retail and wholesale market.   Additionally, OpenMarkets will build its client base through partnerships with third party financial services firms.

“We are a truly independent, low cost brokerage firm,” said OpenMarkets’ Chief Executive Officer, Rick Klink. “While individual and wholesale investors can use the service directly, we also intend to develop and grow the business through an open partnership approach. This will see us build relationships and integrate our services with third parties, such as research providers, for the benefit of our mutual clients.”

OpenMarkets is already live with a select group of clients, and will officially launch its retail services soon.

Michael Cox, Chairman of the National Stock Exchange, said: “The launch of online trading by OpenMarkets is an historic moment for NSX. It gives investors and traders a service they’ve been asking for.  NSX has enjoyed the addition of a record eight new brokers this year and the connection of our ninth being our first online broker is excellent news and further evidences the rapidly growing interest in NSX.”

The launch of OpenMarkets comes at a time when the stockbroking industry is undergoing significant consolidation and upheaval. Changes in the regulation of the financial services industry, more stringent compliance requirements from ASIC and ASX, coupled with the impacts of the GFC, have all made it harder for the smaller full service brokers to survive.

More importantly, FOFA reforms have forced the unbundling of execution and advice which has seen financial advisers seeking the lowest cost execution in response to increased pressure from their clients.

“Our focus on execution will make us extremely attractive to financial service providers wanting to offer their clients an online trading service that does not try to sell  financial products that are in direct competition with their services” said Chief Operating Officer, Andrea Marani.

Commenting on the launch of the business, the Australian Securities Exchange’s General Manager of Trading Services, David Raper, said “ASX is pleased to welcome OpenMarkets as a new market participant. The market structure and the needs of users have undergone significant change in recent years and ASX is pleased that OpenMarkets has identified the competitive advantage of hosting its market data and trading infrastructure in the ASX Australian Liquidity Centre.”

OpenMarkets resources and infrastructure are provided through a partnership with Paritech, a leading provider of front and middle office software trading technologies to the finance industry.   Through this partnership OpenMarkets also has access to an initial client base of high net worth investors through subsidiary company, Paritrade.

Mr Klink said the infrastructure for the trading platform was designed to be highly scalable and user friendly.

“OpenMarkets is the first Australian stockbroking business to fully embrace the power of cloud computing through our partnership with global giant Amazon’s Australian-based datacentre infrastructure.

“The use of cloud computing has significantly reduced our capital expenditure and risks, while still maintaining the security and ability to handle high trading volumes at any time.   This also means we are not reliant on legacy third party incumbents,” said Mr Klink. “This will allow us to introduce new developments faster and more efficiently as our broking business continues to grow.

“We are also offering a powerful set of trading web services that we believe will transform online trading in Australia.  These services will allow third parties, such as wealth management companies and research providers, to quickly and cost effectively deliver fully integrated trading applications via their own websites or mobile apps.”

OpenMarkets’ retail services include a simple ‘no-frills’ web trading platform together with an advanced trading platform. OpenMarkets’ transaction cost is $13.95 or 0.07% per transaction which is lower and simpler than the fee schedules of its bank competitors.

“Our focus is very much on providing a low cost, personalised, online, independent broking service,” said Mr Marani.

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