ThinkMarkets Branches into Institutional Business Space with Liquidity.net
The UK business of Melbourne-based broker, ThinkMarkets, has launched a new prime brokerage unit under the brand Liquidity.net. The foray into multi-asset liquidity provision is intended for a client segment that includes mid-sized hedge funds, family offices and other buy-side institutions.
The expansion into the B2B market comes at a time when institutional and professional traders are experiencing challenges accessing the wholesale foreign exchange price matching community via a prime brokerage model.
Liquidity.net is authorized by the UK’s financial watchdog and, upon launch, it has established offices in London and Dubai.
ThinkMarkets expects its multi-asset offering to yield a potential market opportunity. For this purpose, it strengthened the dedicated institutional desk with prime broker partnerships alongside a white label product through MetaTrader 4, MetaTrader 5, and Integral platforms.
Liquidity.net business introduces a liquidity pool offering that connects investors to multiple streams via a single venue. ThinkMarkets said its multi-asset pricing engine combines trading with real-time reporting and allows for “unique price formation and the addition of new liquidity into the market as well as pricing alongside Tier-1 liquidity.”
The increase in banking regulation, which mandates increased minimum levels of capital and increases in reporting expenses, has resulted in a lot of banks leaving the prime broking space. The exit of legacy players in the prime brokerage space has indeed allowed new offerings to rapidly gain customers and fill the void.
Commenting on the launch, Co-founder & Director of ThinkMarkets, Faizan Anees said: “We are thrilled to expand our business with an institutional offering. Our prime broker relationships enable us to deliver customized & tailored trading conditions to all participants in the institutional and professional marketplace. With an established team of professionals and a tried and tested infrastructure, we stand ready to meet the needs clients have in the market.”
ThinkMarkets has hired FX industry veteran Mukrram Ali to lead its new initiative. He lands at the firm coming from FX liquidity solutions provider PrimeXM, where he spent the last three years as its Director of Business Development. Mukrram previously held senior sales roles at MahiFX, Valbury Capital and at FXCM.
Commenting on his appointment as Managing Director for Liquidity.net, Ali said, “I’m delighted to join ThinkMarkets to head Liquidity.net. We are strongly committed to disrupt the market with reliable infrastructure, top-tier prime broking relationship, and our ability to provide access to a unique liquidity offering for our clients.”
ThinkMarkets (formerly ThinkForex) is a multi-licensed online forex brokerage firm, authorized and regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC).
The firm expanded its global footprint through its licensed South African firm. It also acquired the Japanese FX firm, Japan Affiliate, in a move that allows ThinkMarkets to offer its service in the Asian country. This announcement coincided with the opening of ThinkMarkets’ Tokyo office.
Although ThinkMarkets have regulations in many other jurisdictions, this wasn’t sufficient as no such passports are recognized, and FX brokers need to obtain JFSA authorization to do business in Japan.
