London — LiquidityBook, a leading Software-as-a-Service (SaaS)-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, today announced the addition of Matthew Howard as Head of Asia-Pacific Client Service, as demand for its industry-leading POEMS (portfolio, order and execution management system) platform grows globally.
Based in London, Mr. Howard will work alongside Nick Thompson, who joined the firm last year and leads LiquidityBook’s EMEA support organization. Mr. Howard will be responsible for overseeing all service and deployment needs for its growing user base in the Asia-Pacific region, augmenting the firm’s existing coverage group.
Mr. Howard brings nearly 20 years of experience in the trading industry. He joins from Schneider Trading Associates, a leading multi-asset brokerage facilitation firm, where he spent almost 15 years, most recently serving as Chief Operations Officer. In that role he was responsible for a wide variety of mission critical functions, including ensuring that the firm’s trading technology stack met the new MiFID II compliance requirements. He also oversaw Schneider’s selection and deployment of the LiquidityBook OMS. Mr. Howard began his career in the industry at UFJ Bank, where he spent four years in several roles focused on trading desk operations.
Commenting on the news, Chief Revenue Officer Sean Sullivan said: “While our fully SaaS-based model makes management far simpler than legacy systems, clients want to know that when they do have an issue they’ll deal with a group that understands their needs intimately. There are few in the industry with deeper knowledge of the full trade lifecycle workflow better than Matt, and we’re excited to bring him aboard to help round out our global support organization to meet our increasing client needs in Asia-Pacific.”
Mr. Howard added: “I’ve spent my entire career on the client side, and during that time got to know many trading platforms very well. LiquidityBook’s POEMS was always hugely impressive for a host of reasons – ease of use, simplicity of management, robust functionality and low TCO to name a few – and those are ultimately why we selected it at Schneider. I’m very happy to be joining the firm at such an exciting time and look forward to working with the team to further grow the business.”
LiquidityBook has experienced dramatic growth over the past two years, winning mandates from emerging managers all the way up to $10B+ funds. The LiquidityBook platform delivers significant benefits in the following areas:
- Cost: LBX is a fully SaaS-based product, delivered 100% via the cloud leveraging AWS’s global footprint and architecture, which is the most reliable and secure in the industry. That means there is no need to pay for servers, hosting, BCP, back-up data or mobile/remote connectivity, which also eliminates fees paid to third-party hosting providers. The platform provides full redundancy and accessibility anywhere in the world; users simply need a browser and connectivity to trade.
- Stability and Service: LBX is an OMS/PMS/FIX order routing platform built on a single code base. Every client runs the same version, and updates are rolled out weekly. The platform is not an amalgamation of different stitched-together products; it was developed only a few years ago, making it far more reliable than competitive offerings.
- Functionality: The product is one integrated platform, which has significant usability benefits. For instance, the GUI is incredibly flexible, allowing users to create custom columns and calculations on the fly.
- Business Model: Since LiquidityBook provides its products on a SaaS basis, the firm can offer them at a very competitive price point while still being able to fully fund development, growth and product enhancements. The firm is not and has never been dependent on transactional fees to drive revenue growth. Not only do those cut into broker commission wallet commitments that many buy side firms are struggling to reach, this model is also potentially considered an inducement under MiFID II unless the vendor also provides connectivity.
About LiquidityBook
LiquidityBook is a leading SaaS-based provider of buy- and sell-side trading solutions, including order management, portfolio management, trading, FIX network connectivity, compliance and pre- and post-trade processing. Founded in 2005, the LiquidityBook platform is trusted by many of the industry’s most sophisticated buy- and sell-side firms globally to power their trading workflows. For more information please visit www.liquiditybook.com or contact sales@dck.kas.mybluehost.me.
