Nedbank Capital Goes Live with CFD Trading Platform Based On SunGard’s FRONT ARENA

SunGard today announced that Nedbank Capital, a leading South African investment bank, has successfully gone live with a new online trading platform for contracts for difference (CFD), based on SunGard’s FRONT ARENA trading platform. The CFD launch is the latest in a number of initiatives at Nedbank Capital to consolidate the bank’s entire trading activity from a range of systems onto a simpler, more efficient technology framework. SunGard’s FRONT ARENA is part of this initiative which spans equities, fixed income, interest rate derivatives, credit derivatives, money markets, structured finance and settlements.

The latest implementation phase has helped enable Nedbank Capital to become first South African investment bank to offer CFDs to the retail market. NedTrade is an online trading platform based on SunGard’s FRONT ARENA that allows the investor to place CFD orders with Nedbank Capital, see live CFD prices and manage his or her CFD account.

“Internationally, CFD’s have signaled a new era in equity trading,” said Arthur Buchner, head of derivatives in Nedbank Capital’s equity capital markets division. “CFD’s offer geared exposure and a more cost-effective way of trading than dealing in ordinary shares. Following wide acceptance in other markets, local institutional investors have been using them to their advantage through niche traders. Nedbank Capital’s CFD trading platform will appeal to savvy, risk-aware investors who are experienced in equity derivatives and are trading either directly online or via their stockbrokers as well as to stockbrokers managing portfolios on behalf of clients.”

“Over the past 18 months Nedbank Capital has completed seven system implementations on SunGard’s FRONT ARENA trading platform, all successful and within budget,” commented Buchner. “Providing our clients with direct connectivity for CFD trading is the latest in a number of phased implementations completed with SunGard, across the treasury. SunGard is a vendor that is in tune with our business demands and strategic goals. We wanted a system that was modular and could be rolled out in phases. Large technology overhauls are better done in bite-size chunks, keeping business disruption to a minimum, so together we adopted a phased delivery approach, taking out one legacy system at a time. We’ve been able to consolidate our client positions, enhance our risk profile and reduce our back office costs.”

Charmain Alves, regional manager, Africa at SunGard’s FRONT ARENA, Monis, Reech and IKO business units, said, "We are pleased to help Nedbank become the first bank in South Africa to offer investors the ability to trade this increasingly popular type of equity instrument. With one system across the trading floor supporting all asset classes, Nedbank’s traders can offer their clients some of the latest, most innovative and structured solutions. Overall, SunGard’s FRONT ARENA has helped the bank achieve better workflows throughout the trade lifecycle and more transparent and integrated reporting and accounting procedures.”