Thomson Reuters, the world’s leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals, announced today the introduction of the Elektron API  family, a set of open-source Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) that simplify access to Thomson Reuters data feeds and services, and help developers to innovate by creating their own customised applications. The Elektron API family consists of a broad set of interfaces ranging from low latency/high performance to simple content aware and web APIs.

End users of financial data are increasingly setting the agenda in the types of data they access and how they use it based on their individual needs. This reflects a growing trend in the financial services industry towards agile, connected and open models as powerful growth drivers.

The Elektron API family provides an easy-to-use, single point of access to Thomson Reuters Elektron content delivered by Elektron Real Time as well as content delivered using Thomson Reuters Enterprise Platform (TREP), which can include third party content. The availability of the new APIs under an open source license enables developers to extend the APIs to access multiple data sources and systems through a single API stack.  This helps them to be more agile and innovative whilst potentially lowering total ownership costs.  In this way, the Elektron API family opens the flow of content and connectivity for users without compromising class leading delivery.

“Open access to data is driving innovation in the technology industry by simplifying the processes developers use to access, explore and create,” said Brennan Carley, head of platform and analytics, Financial & Risk, Thomson Reuters. “The Elektron API family was designed to meet the changing needs of market participants by supporting innovation and collaboration, helping drive profitable and sustainable financial markets in an effective, user-friendly way.”

“The financial industry is undergoing unprecedented transformation”, said Sang Lee, co-founder and managing partner, Aite Group.  “To succeed, firms need to have the flexibility to adapt quickly to changing circumstances and seize new opportunities.  This means that service providers in their turn need to offer easier and more open tools to enable agile application development, and to provide developers with open standards that can access many sources of content.”

Users of the Elektron API family will also have access to one of the largest developer and partner communities in the financial industry, helping to increase the level of productivity, collaboration and innovation across a broad ecosystem, with Thomson Reuters acting as anchor firm.  Through on-going development and community enhancement, Thomson Reuters intends to support and build on the APIs over time.

The Elektron API family builds on a history of market data innovation at Thomson Reuters, which was the first vendor to support completely open market data architectures with the Thomson Reuters Enterprise Platform and its predecessors. The Elektron APIs were developed with active engagement and feedback from Thomson Reuters customers, including five of the top global banks.