ValuBond Selects SAVVIS As Preferred Managed Network Service To Power Electronic Bond Trading Platform
17 November 2003
HERNDON, Va.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 17, 2003-- SAVVIS Communications (NASDAQ:SVVS), a global managed IP and managed hosting services provider, today announced that ValuBond, a fixed-income trading platform used daily by more than 300 brokerage firms, will deploy SAVVIS' Financial Transaction Service (FTS) to its brokerages and investment firms via SAVVIS' secure, fully-meshed, high-availability global network.
"ValuBond is committed to providing a complete range of connectivity solutions to the hundreds of firms which use the platform each day to trade bonds," said Mitch Gersten, CTO of ValuBond. "SAVVIS' FTS network and managed services provide a low-cost, high-value way for our clients to enhance their network connectivity and for us to reduce costs and implementation time for integrating with the ValuBond trading platform."
ValuBond joins a long list of trading venues that provide value to their clients via SAVVIS' Financial Transaction Services. Currently, ValuBond offers its buy-side clients access to electronic execution on an aggregated bond inventory from 200+ investment firms, and offers its sell-side clients the opportunity to substantially increase order flow and turnover of bond inventory.
The FTS solution is designed to meet the unique requirements of trading applications - low bandwidth combined with high availability, performance and security. SAVVIS supports all the major trading protocols, including FIX, FIXML, FpML, IP-CMS and ISO 15022, servicing clients from pre-trade functions to post-trade settlement cycles. As part of the SAVVIS FTS, SAVVIS will deploy a FIX (Financial Information eXchange) network to provide ValuBond clients with an additional gateway for electronic order routing connectivity to leading broker-dealers, asset management firms, exchanges and ECNs (Electronic Communication Networks).
"The financial services industry has very unique needs that an IT infrastructure must carefully evaluate and meet - guaranteed uptime, reliability, security and authenticity," said Jack Finlayson, president and chief operating officer of SAVVIS. "We are pleased to assist ValuBond in delivering a FIX transaction option and look forward to delivering the guaranteed worldwide connectivity, built-in security and performance, which we have become known for."
SAVVIS launched FTS in 2002 and has earned a leadership position in the growing market for electronic trading. 56 of the top liquidity pools, buy-side and sell-side firms, and financial application providers currently use FTS to enable fast, reliable and cost effective electronic trading. FTS is a particularly good fit for financial institutions that do not want to dedicate substantial people and financial resources to building and managing their own trading web of point to point circuits. The client simply tells SAVVIS which counter-party they want to connect to and the bandwidth required. For a low monthly fee, SAVVIS FTS includes engineering expertise, network hardware and management tools, and monitoring and customer support. Network connections are private with guaranteed bandwidth that can be easily increased, resized, or removed, as business needs change.
About ValuBondValuBond provides trading technologies for the fixed income product market, including an electronic trading platform, broker workstations, and professional trader workstations. The broker and trader workstation solutions include electronic secondary trading, new issues, news, commentary, analytics and tools, and are contained in a customizable user interface which can be fully integrated into a firm's IT platform. ValuBond is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and operates through its wholly owned subsidiary, ValuBond Securities, Inc., which is a licensed Alternative Trading System, a broker-dealer, and a member of NASD and SIPC. For more information, ValuBond can be reached by email at sales@valubond.com, on the web at www.valubond.com, by phone at 800.373.9478 or by fax at 404.260.5280.
About SAVVISSAVVIS Communications (NASDAQ:SVVS) is a leading Managed Services Provider that delivers private IP VPNs (virtual private networks), hosting, IP voice and application services to businesses. SAVVIS solutions are designed for industries with demanding IP requirements, including legal, media, retail, professional services, healthcare, manufacturing, and financial services. With its recent acquisition of the commercial business of WAM!NET, the company now delivers fully managed media services that enable organizations to share, collaborate, store and manage content with their partners and clients, and accelerate their workflows in the process.
SAVVIS was ranked #3 in IP VPN market share by IDC in its 2003 report, trailing only AT&T and MCI/WorldCom. Known as "The Network that Powers Wall Street(SM)," its network reliability was declared "perfect" in Network World magazine's groundbreaking study of backbone performance. SAVVIS recently won the American Business Awards "Stevie"(TM) in the category of Best Customer Service Organization. SAVVIS' managed hosting services were awarded the Service Provider Excellence Award by Boardwatch magazine for its virtualized approach to managed hosting, and the Market Engineering Award from Frost & Sullivan for product differentiation and innovation.
