Electronic Broking Services (EBS) is a wholesale
electronic trading platform
In finance, an electronic trading platform also known as an online trading platform, is a computer software program that can be used to place orders for financial products over a network with a financial intermediary. Various financial products ...
used to trade on the
foreign exchange market (FX) with
market-making bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
s. It was originally created as a partnership by large banks and then became part of
CME Group.
History
EBS was created by a partnership of large
foreign exchange
The foreign exchange market (Forex, FX, or currency market) is a global decentralized or over-the-counter (OTC) market for the trading of currencies. This market determines foreign exchange rates for every currency. It includes all as ...
(FX)
market making bank
A bank is a financial institution that accepts deposits from the public and creates a demand deposit while simultaneously making loans. Lending activities can be directly performed by the bank or indirectly through capital markets.
Because ...
s in 1990 to challenge
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
' threatened
monopoly
A monopoly (from Greek language, Greek el, μόνος, mónos, single, alone, label=none and el, πωλεῖν, pōleîn, to sell, label=none), as described by Irving Fisher, is a market with the "absence of competition", creating a situati ...
in interbank
spot foreign exchange and provide effective competition. By 2007, approximately US$164 billion in
spot
Spot or SPOT may refer to:
Places
* Spot, North Carolina, a community in the United States
* The Spot, New South Wales, a locality in Sydney, Australia
* South Pole Traverse, sometimes called the South Pole Overland Traverse
People
* Spot (prod ...
foreign exchange transactions were traded every day over EBS's
central limit order book
Central is an adjective usually referring to being in the center of some place or (mathematical) object.
Central may also refer to:
Directions and generalised locations
* Central Africa, a region in the centre of Africa continent, also known as ...
, EBS Market.
EBS's closest competitor is
Refinitiv
Refinitiv is an American-British global provider of financial market data and infrastructure. The company was founded in 2018. It is a subsidiary of London Stock Exchange Group after a US$27 billion sale from previous owners Blackstone Group LP ...
FXall. The decision by an FX trader whether to use EBS or FXall is driven largely by
currency pair
A currency pair is the dyadic quotation of the relative value of a currency unit against the unit of another currency in the foreign exchange market. The currency that is used as the reference is called the counter currency, quote currency, or ...
. In practice, EBS is the primary
trading venue
An exchange, bourse (), trading exchange or trading venue is an organized market where (especially) tradable securities, commodities, foreign exchange, futures, and options contracts are bought and sold.
History
12th century: Brokers on t ...
for EUR/USD, USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, USD/CHF, EUR/CHF and USD/CNH, and FXall is the primary trading venue for commonwealth (AUD/USD, NZD/USD, USD/CAD) and emerging market currency pairs.
EBS initiated e-trading in spot precious metals, spanning spot gold, silver, platinum and palladium, and remains the leading electronic broker in spot gold and silver through the Loco London Market.
They were the first organisation to facilitate orderly black box or
algorithmic trading in spot FX, through an
application programming interface
An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how t ...
(API). By 2007 this accounted for 60% of all EBS flow.
In addition to spot FX and Precious Metals, EBS has expanded trading products through its venues to include NDFs, forwards and FX options. It has also increased the range of trading style to include RFQ and streaming in disclosed and non-disclosed environments.
EBS was acquired by
ICAP, the world's largest
inter-dealer broker
An Inter-dealer broker (IDB) is specialist financial intermediary that facilitates transactions between broker-dealers, dealer banks and other financial institutions rather than private individuals.IDBsact as intermediaries in the financial mark ...
, in June 2006.
In 2014, EBS merged with BrokerTec—a service provider in the fixed income markets—to form EBS BrokerTec. BrokerTec offers trading technology for many US and European fixed income products including US Treasuries, European Government Bonds and European Repo.
In 2017, EBS BrokerTec was renamed to NEX Markets and the name EBS BrokerTec ceased to exist. The names of the trading platforms, EBS and BrokerTec, remained.
In 2018, NEX Markets was acquired by CME Group.
[{{Cite web, last=Browne, first=Ryan, date=2018-03-29, title=CME Group reaches deal to acquire NEX for $5.5 billion, url=https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/29/cme-group-deal-to-buy-nex-for-5-point-5-billion.html, access-date=2020-08-20, website=CNBC, language=en]
Structure
Products of the company include:
*EBS Spot (electronic FX spot broking)
*EBS Spot Ai (application program interface (API) between the customer's trading system and the EBS Spot market)
*EBS Prime (access for the interbank and professional trading communities to the best EBS Spot prices from an EBS Prime bank)
*EBS Metals (electronic spot broking for the precious metals market)
*EBS NDFs (electronic spot broking for non-deliverable FX pairs)
*EBS Live (live streaming prices delivered with minimum latency direct from EBS to the customer's market data distribution platform)
*EBS Ticker (third-party system distribution of EBS Spot prices)
*EBS Rates (desktop view of EBS Spot prices, available through the Thomson Reuters Eikon and
3000xtra desktop as well as the
Bloomberg Terminal
The Bloomberg Terminal is a computer software system provided by the financial data vendor Bloomberg L.P. that enables professionals in the financial service sector and other industries to access Bloomberg Professional Services through which u ...
service)
*EBS Data Mine (unique and certified historical data from 1997 onwards)
See also
*
NEX Group
NEX Group plc, formerly known as ICAP plc, is a UK-based business focused on electronic financial markets and post trade business for other financial institutions rather than private individuals. They are known as an inter-broker dealer. The ...
*
CME Group
References
Financial services companies established in 1990
Financial services companies of the United States
Commodity exchanges in the United States
Electronic trading platforms
2006 mergers and acquisitions
American companies established in 1990