SunGard, the financial services technology firm, has launched an electronic agency broker-dealer based in the UK serving the European markets. It will offer sponsored access to European markets and provide high velocity direct market access, smart order routing, algorithms, and clearing and settlement services to high frequency trading firms and other market participants.

According to SunGard, the European brokerage industry is characterised by liquidity fragmentation and rising execution costs. The firm says it can help customers reduce trading and infrastructure costs through monetising order flow carried out through its execution and clearing services, and gain transparency and efficiency through the automated trading lifecycle.

SunGard already offers these services to customers in the US market, and this launch into Europe will enhance its global network, the firm said in a statement.

“With our new broker-dealer in Europe, SunGard can provide US and European customers with one access point to nearly 100 per cent of displayed liquidity. This will help customers achieve best execution at a reduced cost. Offering a global integrated trading platform and execution, risk, clearing and compliance services, SunGard is able to automate and streamline every point of the trade lifecycle, helping our customers increase revenues, improve processing efficiencies, manage risk and reduce costs,” said Raj Mahajan, president of SunGard’s trading business.