Ibs Forex Unveils Online Trade Platform

IBS Forex, in association with Financial Technologies (India) Ltd, today launched its online trading platform christened FxDirect. IBS Forex is promoted by Financial Technologies and a few forex market experts.

This will be the second on-line trading platform in the forex market available to the dealers, besides Reuters. The Clearing Corporation of India Ltd (CCIL) also plans to introduce on-line platform in the Indian forex market.

In due course, IBS Forex is planning to introduce a module for forward trading as well. The company is even planning to take on Reuters globally once it completes the India-wide connectivity.

Jignesh Shah, managing director and chief executive officer of Financial Technologies told Business Standard that the new platform is expected to capture 30-40 per cent of the trading volume in a years' time. He said the daily trading volume in the forex market is to the tune of $1 billion -- 60 per cent of which happened on the on-line trading paltform.

Already 15 banks have agreed to be subscribers of the new platform and IBS Forex has completed the connectivity for 10 of them. For the remaining five, connectivity will be done in the next couple of days. According to Shah, the 15 banks consist of four big public sector banks, four leading new private sector banks and seven top foreign banks in the country.

Shah said innovative technology and better pricing will help FxDirect to compete with Reuters. P Ganesh Rao, chief executive officer of IBS Forex, said the subscribers to the new platform will be charged according to the trading volume done, in contrast with the flat fee charged by the Reuters for using its platform. The minimum fee will be Rs 25,000 per month per terminal and the maximum will be at Rs 75,000 per month per terminal depending upon the deals done through the platform. In addition, there will be a communication fee of Rs 5,000 per bank.