Smart Trade Technologies, a financial markets’ leader in delivering liquidity management systems to automate MiFID- and Reg NMS-compliant best execution, today announced that the Caisse Nationale des Caisses d’Epargne (CNCE), the French bank head of Groupe Caisse d’Epargne, has selected the smartTrade Transaction Platform (STTP) to deliver an automated electronic trading service that sources liquidity from the CNCE’s internal pricing engines and distributes the liquidity to the Caisses d’Epargne. The STTP platform solution is in production, currently handling money market instruments.
The Caisse Nationale des Caisses d'Epargne serves as the central coordinating body of 17 cooperatively-owned savings banks and other retail banks in France and functions as a central bank with 4,700 branches serving more than 26 million customers. It carries out three main missions and activities within Group Caisse d’Epargne:
- As the central institution of the Group, it represents the financial institutions affiliated to it in dealings with the regulatory authorities and, in this capacity, monitors compliance with the laws and regulations specific to these institutions. It takes all measures required to maintain the cohesion of the network and to ensure the smooth functioning of the affiliated entities. The CNCE takes all necessary measures to guarantee the liquidity and solvency of all its affiliated institutions. It defines the products and services that are distributed to customers and coordinates the commercial policy.
- As the holding company of the Group, the CNCE pursues its activities at the head of the Group. It owns and manages its equity interests in the subsidiaries and also defines the Group’s development policy.
- As the banker to the Group, the CNCE is responsible, in particular, for the centralized management of any surplus funds held by the individual Caisses d’Epargne and for proceeding with any financial transactions useful for the development and refinancing of the Group. It also provides banking services to the different Group entities.
Smart Trade’s platform aggregates liquidity from multiple internal and external sources to offer multi-asset class, electronic-trading services meeting best-execution constraints, including internalization, crossing and smart routing of orders.
“The past two years have represented a remarkable period of opportunity and transformation at CNCE,” said Jean-François Saudrais, directeur du département de la Gestion Financière, CNCE treasury management group. According to Mr. Saudrais, “this included the need to provide automated electronic trading services to Groupe Caisse d’Epargne and its subsidiaries, which required a highly flexible system, using real-time web technology designed according to CNCE’s precise graphical requirement and own ergonomics.” Saudrais added, “Smart Trade successfully met our requirements.”
“Time-to-market was also an important factor for CNCE,” said Harry Gozlan, CEO and founder at Smart Trade. “They wanted to quickly source, test and launch a transaction platform for their corporate treasury management team that met strict design and implementation money-market operation constraints linking traders, market makers and clients.”
About Smart Trade
Headquartered in France with offices in New York, Paris and Aix-en-Provence, Smart Trade Technologies automates MiFID- and Reg NMS-compliant best execution across the enterprise by providing the financial markets with the most sophisticated liquidity management system (LMS) that enables investment banks, brokers and exchanges to streamline their execution process across multiple-asset classes around the globe. For more information, visit http://www.smart-trade.net.
About Groupe Caisse d’Epargne
Groupe Caisse d’Epargne already ranked as one of the largest retail banks in France through the Caisses d’Epargne, the Crédit Foncier, Océor and Palatine networks and its specialist subsidiaries, and now claims a place among the leading universal banks. With the creation of Natixis at the end of 2006, the Group has stepped up the development of all its activities in the area of corporate and investment banking, asset management and financial services. In 2007, it created a listed real estate division around Nexity, making the group the most fully integrated operator specializing in real estate activities and commanding front-ranking positions in its markets. Groupe Caisse d’Epargne has launched its international development in the commercial banking field, notably in the Maghreb, via Océor, its commercial banking arm in the international area and in French overseas territories. Underpinned by 51,200 staff, 22,000 Natixis and 6,600 Nexity employees, Groupe Caisse d’Epargne operates across the full spectrum of businesses, client types and the main international financial marketplaces.
Contacts:
Martin Rabkin, +1-914-420-5739
mrabkin@martinrabkinink.com
