FINTECH REACTS TO BREXIT

There are very few times in a lifetime when you bear witness to a such an historic occasion as the morning of 24th June 2016.

The UK voted to leave the European Union, and although it is clear that the impact will be significant, we are unlikely to see the full consequences for at least another decade. However, three weeks in, the dust is beginning to settle and we are already able to better evaluate the initial impacts of Brexit on the finance and supporting fintech community.

FX Trading

Following the outcome of the referendum, there has been a considerable surge in FX trading. The resulting movement in the FX markets is good news for high frequency trading firms and many others in the financial ecosystem who rely on market volatility to generate activity.

With this spike in activity comes the need for the infrastructure and provisions to support it. Additional bandwidth, assured reliability, availability and diversity of circuits are more important than ever, and providers need to be ready to react just as quickly as the markets are moving. An engineered FX trading platform, such as our BSO FX-Ultra Low solution, is specifically tailored to the needs of FX traders. As a result, the platform is built to support sudden increases in data traffic and network usage as experienced over the last three weeks.

Relocation of Operations

Not only is there increased movement in the FX markets, there is also potential physical movement of financial institutions out of London to ensure their continued access to the Single Market, particularly amongst the large US banks such as Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley. As with market volatility, change of location can be highly beneficial for businesses and the industry, but needs to be supported by agile partners and providers.

Telecom Providers

National telecom giants have already seen negative post-Brexit effects, such as BT whose shares suffered a large hit almost immediately. On the contrary, the more international telecom providers are less affected by the weakening/strengthening of local markets and could be considered a safer choice in uncertain times.

Nimbler, more agile providers, such as BSO, that have operations in Europe (London, Dublin, Paris, Luxembourg), North America and Asia can seamlessly support financial clients in their necessary post-Brexit moves. In addition, at BSO we have the flexibility to react very quickly and can have new services up and running in extremely short lead times, as was the case with Fidessa’s Connectivity in/out Asia.

The real long-term impact of Brexit is still uncertain and many of the financial sectors’ questions will remain unanswered for years to come. However, one thing we can be sure of is that, of the changes we have seen in the financial sector, some are far more positive than anticipated. Change can be good, as long as partners and providers are able to move and adapt as needed, ensuring immediate access to new markets.