Integral, the financial technology partner trusted by leading banks, brokers, and investment managers to design, deliver and grow their FX businesses, announced today that it has received a U.S. patent, number 9,836,789, titled “Method and System for Generating and Operating Hybrid Markets and User Defined Marketplaces.”

“Integral has a long history of innovation to solve some of the most difficult problems in financial markets,” said Harpal Sandhu, Integral founder and CEO.  “We are delighted to receive approval for the patent in the U.S. that addresses the fundamental problem of creating a hybrid market that combines liquidity from multiple market micro-structures. We look forward to working with market participants who would like to benefit from this innovation.” 

Among other benefits, the patent covers the ability to combine liquidity from multiple market types including OTC and designated contracts.  It accomplishes this by automatically activating a central limit order book (CLOB) to create a hybrid market in a given instrument.

As a result of the invention, market participants can combine liquidity from OTC Request for Quote (RFQ) markets with resting orders liquidity in CLOBs, leading to deeper, richer liquidity in previously illiquid markets.