Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation revamps FX with Kx Systems
Japanese multinational Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation (SMBC) has selected Kx Systems to power its electronic FX infrastructure.
Kx Systems has already deployed the first phase of the project
A multi-year agreement, the deal will see Kx providing the bank with three components – Kx for Flow, Algo Risk Management and FX Analytics – all parts of the vendor’s FX trading platform.
SMBC is now live with phase one of the project, which the vendor claims will enable SMBC to “rapidly deliver a comprehensive market-leading service to meet the needs of its dealers and customers alike.”
Katsuhiko Yano, joint general manager of global markets engineering at SMBC, says that Kx was a “natural choice” for the bank. The vendor, she adds, is well placed to provide SMBC with “a flexible, scalable and high-performance technology that easily integrates with our existing systems.”
Originally founded in 1993, Kx Systems is a subsidiary company of First Derivatives, which steadily increased its share in the company until finally taking all shares in 2018.
Its flagship product is its column-based relational time series database, kdb+, commonly used in high-frequency trading to store, analyse and process large data sets at high speed.
“Our e-FX solutions deliver rich functionality informed by many years of FX domain expertise and powered by the world-leading performance of Kx technology,” says Patrick Brazel, chief commercial officer at Kx.
“This combination is delivering important benefits for our clients and establishing Kx as a key technology provider to the e-FX market.”
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SMBC was formed by the merger of The Sumitomo Bank and Sakura Bank in April 2001. It’s the second-largest bank in Japan by assets and market capitalisation, and 14th largest in the world by assets.
Alongside MUFG and Mizuho, it is referred to as one of Japan’s megabanks. The bank is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.
