Fidelity Beefs Up Broker, Adviser System

Fidelity Investments’ institutional brokerage group is updating its online brokerage and clearing program in an effort to attract more brokers and advisers to its clearing business.

The new platform, dubbedStreetscape, is slated to be rolled out in the third quarter. The changes are intended help institutional clients better serve and manage assets for their clients.

Donna Morris, marketing and product management division executive, said Streetscape is aimed at helping Fidelity boost its market-share lead among service providers who cater to the same institutional market, which includes financial planners. It now provides trading and clearing platforms for nearly half that market, she said.

According to Patrick Jancsy, director of product management, Fidelity “made this program to help our institutional brokerage clients build up their businesses and retain their own best employees,” he said.

Streetscape will give brokers and advisers real-time access to news and Fidelity’s market research, and will provide brokers with much more information on their clients’ accounts, Mr. Jancsy said. Brokers and advisers will also be able to trade through the service, he said.

Streetscape is replacing Fidelity’s MAXXbroker platform, which does not have many of Streetscape’s service and market-data components. It has been in development for two years and is being tested by 13 clients of Fidelity’s institutional brokerage group, Ms. Morris said.

The service consists of a brokerage center, business center, and service center. The brokerage center consolidates information on clients’ accounts, lets brokers make trades, and gives them access to market data. The business center provides reps with information on Fidelity products, guides them on using Streetscape, and gives operational support. The service center lets brokers track customer orders, transfer assets, and prepare retirement distribution requests.

Mr. Jancsy said institutional clients will be able to change aspects of the online product in order to put a unique brand on it. That will help the institutions retain their own reps by tailoring Streetscape to their own employees’ needs, he said.

Fidelity’s institutional brokerage group expects all of its 41,000 adviser customers to be using the product within six to nine months of its launch, Mr. Jancsy said.