Tech Bytes: Bank Tests Internet Foreign Exchange System

International Financial Systems said a large London bank has begun piloting its Web-based collateralized foreign exchange trading system.

Pension funds, private banking customers, and over-the-counter trading counterparts of financial institutions would have direct access to global trading markets through the system, called ATS for automated trading system. Using a browser, clients also would have access to their portfolios to perform risk and pricing calculations.

ATS is scheduled for release in the fourth quarter, International Financial said. It would initially be equipped with an option to link to the vendor's Margin Man trading system.

Kenneth Coldrick, a managing director of International Financial, said many of the 60 banks that use Margin Man have expressed an interest in ATS. Citibank is using Margin Man in the private banking divisions of its U.S., London, Frankfurt, and Singapore offices for collateralized foreign exchange trade processing.

Support for money market and interest rate products, and interaction with equities and securities, would eventually be added to ATS, Mr. Coldrick said.