OSTTRA, a 50:50 joint venture between CME Group and IHS Markit, is actively looking to offshore more roles in its forex and securities businesses into its Indian operations, Joanna Davies, Head of FX and Securities said.

This London headquartered fintech, which is a post-trade processing platform, is also now leveraging its India-based teams to deliver and support its solutions such as ClientLink ETD, which comprehensively addresses the current problems of speed and accuracy of trades in the global futures market, Davies told businessline here.

Well established service

OSTTRA has a well-established ETD post-trade service, used by many global banks and investment managers.

ClientLink ETD — which automates post trades for exchange traded derivatives (ETDs)—provides coverage across executing and clearing brokers so that clients can see ETD trades in real time. It gives buy-side clients end-to-end visibility of each trade. A visibility of cleared trades means clients can increase the window to trade more with the financial resources they have available. Also, there will be clarity of commissions to be deducted on the trade date.

OSTTRA was formed in 2021 through the combination of four businesses that have been at the heart of post trade evolution and innovation for the last 20 plus years —MarkitServ, Traiana, TriOptima and Reset. OSTTRA has been primarily focused on institutional post trade solutions for the global OTC markets across interest rate, FX, equity and credit asset classes. 

300 employees in Gurugram

Davies, who was visiting India, also said that all innovation around forex and securities products portfolio is now being built out of India. OSTTRA has a centre of excellence in Gurugram with about 300 people.

On the status of integration of OSTTRA’s Tel Aviv operations—which this scaled fintech intends to close—with its India unit, Davies said that it was very much on track and nearly all products earlier housed in Israel will now be out of India. 

“The integration of our Tel Aviv operations has been a very well executed programme of work. By the end of this year, we will be complete. OSTTRA had 25 different services in Tel Aviv across all asset classes”, she added.

Building India footprint She also said that the migration (Tel Aviv operations) has been deliberately phased over 18 months and that is what is happening. “Our great intention of building India footprint continues and are on track to have 450 people in 2023 and 600 by 2024. We will grow in India as the talent pool in India is the right one for us to grow,” Davies added. In the next couple of years, the number of people in the Indian operations catering to forex and securities markets may even double from the current level of about 150 professionals.

Davies also said that the geo political events (Russia’s conflict with Ukraine) this year has enhanced OSTTRA’s business model. “We thrive off volatility. The Ukraine invasion attempt has created volatility that financial markets thrive off and we have been able to leverage that volatility in the same way as Covid-19 helped volumes (in derivatives market) go through the roof,” Davies said.

“We have leveraged that volatility to extend our footprint in the futures markets. We tap into growth of global futures market. It (ClientLink ETD) is more so a global product for us. We do now see more interest from Indian institutions for this product. We are leveraging Indian operations for the global market while keeping a keen eye of Indian market. We are a global business transacting for global institutional investors”.