The Bids Wanted in Competition (BWIC) process completes on the WIC trading platform

Etrading Software, the independent, global provider of technology-led solutions designed for financial institutions and industry initiatives, in partnership with Artis Holdings Limited, a technology provider of electronic platforms and tools for the Loan market, today announces it has completed its opening BWIC (Bids Wanted in Competition) process via the live WIC trading platform for the first onboarded clients.

“The WIC trading platform is the latest step toward electronification of workflows for the loan market, providing market participants with an automated, reliable and user-friendly choice when trading loans,” said Grant Wilson, Managing Partner of Etrading Software. “Together with market participants, our goal is to better meet the demand for efficient, streamlined loan trading while continuing to preserve the existing Dealer/Client relationship. With the completion of the opening WIC on the platform we have had the invaluable opportunity for live feedback from trading desks and will continue to focus on further enhancing the platform by deploying new innovative trading functionality that will enhance the trading experience and ease the manual workflows and risks in the current, spreadsheet based model.”

The WIC Platform semi-automates BWIC/OWIC administration by removing the clunky and often risky email/spreadsheet sharing process across multiple Sell-side and Buy-side, whilst respecting and enhancing the current Dealer/Client information and value chain. It enables all parties to experience a streamlined version of the existing process and significantly shortens the WIC process by hours - if not days - avoiding long periods of no trading in the names in a WIC, as well as a lengthy timeframe in which bids/offers are valid for.

The new system also creates a robust infrastructure for participating in WICs, whilst preserving the market accepted DNA of the WIC process. This significantly reduces the historic operational risks for all parties involved by removing the bulk of the manual data sharing and data keying from multiple spreadsheets and provides instantaneous calculation of best execution options, greater accuracy of cover prices and timing of release of cover prices as well as internal and external compliance reporting. The tool also enables management to understand flows in real-time and will provide a valuable source of data often lost through the existing manual processes.

Victoria Mcllroy, Client Relationship Manager, said: “We are the first platform globally to facilitate multilateral, electronic BWIC/OWIC trading in loans. Our goal is to continue to work with our clients, both existing and new, to enhance the execution workflow in loans by bringing efficiency, automation and better access to data and electronic tools to remove the manual processes which hold back the loan market.”

Etrading Software designs, builds and operates technology solutions, framing, facilitating and navigating complex decision-making structures – from incubation to execution – that provide financial institutions and industry initiatives vendor-neutral technology solutions tailored to the needs of the OTC markets. From implementation to ongoing operational support and system governance, such cases include Neptune Networks Ltd, the Derivatives Service Bureau (DSB) Ltd and most recently, the Artis Holdings WIC platform.