BGC Partners Launches Hybrid Trading Platform for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities (TIPS)

NEW YORK, December 15, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

- BGC offers enhanced liquidity and transparency to the TIPS marketplace

BGC Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ: BGCP) ("BGC Partners" or "BGC"), a leading global brokerage company primarily servicing the world's largest financial institutions, today announced that it has launched BGC Trader for Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities ("TIPS"), available exclusively to primary dealers.  Customer quotes and orders in TIPS will be posted at and executed by BGC Financial, L.P., an affiliated US-registered broker-dealer.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20110720/MM38935LOGO )

Now available for TIPS, BGC Trader is a proprietary multi-asset, integrated voice and electronic price execution platform.  By leveraging BGC's existing global technology and applying it to a new asset class, BGC Trader for TIPS combines the functionality of Volume Match with straight-through processing to ensure rapid and efficient price discovery, order management and execution.

"As a leading cash and derivatives inter-dealer broker and a strong proponent of  increased liquidity and transparency in the marketplace, we are delighted to offer primary dealers in TIPS a new and flexible route to trading using our hybrid system," said D'Arcy Miell, Global Head of Inflation Products.  He continued:  "This represents an exciting milestone for the TIPS marketplace as we encourage new routes to liquidity. We are confident that this latest offering will further strengthen our position as the recognized leader in this field[1]."

Clive England, Director, Head of e-Commerce, North America, commented: "This launch adds to BGC Trader's growing suite of hybrid products across multiple asset classes and further expands our footprint in global territories.  As the markets become more complex and fast-paced, we're finding increased appetite amongst our client base for our proven technology platform that offers functionality rich, lightweight applications within a secure, regulated environment."

About BGC Trader

BGC Trader is BGC's proprietary multi-asset, integrated voice and electronic price execution platform for the inter-bank and broker community. BGC Trader offers a feature-filled, flexible and easy to use front-end. Users benefit from thin-client technology, which allows improved delivery with managed product updates and enhancements, speed, availability and resilience.

BGC Partners' integrated platform is designed to provide flexibility to customers with regard to price discovery, execution and processing of transactions, and enables them to use voice, hybrid, or, where available, fully electronic brokerage services in connection with transactions executed either OTC or through an exchange.

BGC Trader is fully integrated with a choice of either voice or electronic access to support multiple products including: Credit Default Swaps, Equities Options, FX Options, Global Corporate Bonds, Global Government Bonds, i-Traxx, Interest Rate Derivatives, Repos and TIPS.  BGC's platform is regulated as a multilateral trading facility (MTF) by the FSA and adheres to the EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive.

About BGC™ Volume Match

Volume Match is an application within the BGC Trader platform. Volume Match is an anonymous auction-style trading system, which provides customers with efficient price discovery, order management and execution in credit and FX derivative products. It is run multiple times per day for multiple products depending on market demand:

• At specific times and set price levels the market can execute trades anonymously
• Volume Match runs for approximately 5 minutes, several times per day
• At the conclusion of the Volume Match, only those participating will be aware of their transactions
• All unfilled interest remains undisclosed to the marketplace - which aims to remove execution risk

In some markets Volume Match offers an additional price discovery tool allowing traders themselves to post two-way prices. With this additional step, the mid-price is established by the market rather than being inputted by the broker. This offers significantly increased price transparency and efficiency of execution in certain markets.

Volume Match is deployed using Citrix, and is hosted by BGC.

About BGC Partners:

BGC Partners, Inc. is a leading global brokerage company primarily servicing the wholesale financial markets with over 200 products, including fixed income securities, interest rate swaps, foreign exchange, equities, equity derivatives, credit derivatives, commercial real estate, property derivatives, commodities, futures, and structured products.  BGC's technology helps customers, including many of the world's largest banks, broker-dealers, investment banks, trading firms, hedge funds, governments and investment firms, determine the value of a transaction through optimal pricing that reflects the market environment.  Trades, conducted OTC or on exchange, are executed through BGC's voice, hybrid, or fully electronic brokerage services.  BGC also offers financial technology solutions, market data, and analytics regarding financial instruments and markets through its eSpeed, BGC Trader, and BGC Market Data brands, and provides clearing, processing, and other back-office services.  Named after fixed income trading innovator B. Gerald Cantor, BGC has offices in New York, London and more than two dozen other major financial centers around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.bgcpartners.com.

Discussion of Forward-Looking Statements by BGC Partners:

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see BGC Partners' Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors set forth in our public filings, including our most recent Form 10-K and any updates to such risk factors contained in subsequent Form 10-Q or 8-K filings.

[1] BGC has ranked number one in U.S. Dollar inflation swaps in Risk Magazine's Inter-Dealer Rankings for the past seven years consecutively, published September 2011.

   

SOURCE BGC