Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein (DrKW) has launched EQ Finance - a Web-based equity lending/borrowing and repo/reverse trading and order management platform.
EQ Finance, designed and built in-house by DrKW, provides users with a platform for processing trades straight through from beginning to end. With DrKW acting as principal between the lenders and the borrowers, the platform matches supply and demand, enabling users to access an extensive range of potential business counterparties.
Through its use of straight-through processing (STP), client transaction costs are reduced and operational risk is more easily quantifiable, says the investment bank.
The system monitors all transactions online and offers a real-time mark to market of all open equity-financing positions between clients and DrKW.
Users will also be able to customise functions enabling clients to develop the tool according to their own criteria and business needs. The platform is protected against unauthorised access by the application of digital certificates and 128-bit encryption.
One hundered and eighty clients from a wide range of institutions have already expressed interest in the service says Walter Kraushaar, global head of equity finance at DrKW.
He comments: "From the outset we have wanted to offer our clients a customisable trade entry STP solution while highlighting our unique position as principal. EQ Finance was developed with these key requirements in mind and we are confident that we have found a solution that will match our clients' high expectations."