In Asian markets, blink is able to provide clients, wherever they are based, with direct electronic access to Japan, Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong. Singapore and Australia will become available in the next six months. In Europe, blink also offers access to the UK markets and there are plans to extend its offer to other European markets by the end of the year.
Elaborating on the features of the service, Jerry Lees, blink managing director, explains: ôWhile global access is definitely one of the highlights of our service, it's important to note that blink goes beyond being simply an advanced order execution system, or an interface with global equity markets.áIt is a customized, automated, end-to-end global trading solution, providing reliable and low cost connectivity, straight-through processing (STP) and full documentation to customers.ö
Credit Agricole Indosuez also claims that blink is one of the few trading systems interfaced to all the main order routing networks, giving institutional investors a choice of connectivity options.áThese currently include Reuters InterTrade Direct, BloombergÆs EOR, PrimarkÆs GlobalTopic Trader and BridgeÆs Triad/IOE.áConnections to SWIFT and ThomsonÆs Autex Connect will follow later this year.á
In Japan, where the company first offered its Frontiers product for direct real-time access to the the Japanese equity markets, clearing and settlement was outsourced to Citibank. Credit Agricole Indosuez currently uses other custodians in different markets, but is conducting talks aimed at improving STP by dealing with one bank for clearing and settlement in all Asian markets. This will potentially be later extended to other global markets.
In the near future, the company also plans to broaden the scope of blink to include foreign exchange and treasury products. Eventually, it will encompass all the market activities of the whole group.
The announcement of blink, which unifies the companyÆs e-business offerings, comes at the same time as the integration of its European and Asian equity businesses into a single business line, Credit Agricole Indosuez Equities. The business line will regroup Credit Agricole Indosuez Cheuvreux, a leading European broker with a presence in 13 European markets and Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities, ranked amongst the top eight brokerage houses in Asia with 17 offices.á
Credit Agricole Indosuez Equities will be run by Frantois Simon, who remains head of Credit Agricole Indosuez Cheuvreux. Under his authority, Olivier Leymarie will supervise equity trading activities worldwide and Regis Monfront, head of Indosuez W.I. Carr Securities, is in charge of Asian activities. The companyábelieves that research, sales and trading activities will benefit very significantly from the integration.
