Barclays Launches Online COMET Platform Into UK

Tom Burroughes

24 May 2012

Barclays is launching an online pricing and execution platform called COMET into the UK market, as part of how it hopes to change the way wealth managers transact structured product business.

COMET is designed to allow wealth managers to price, trade and execute tailored structured investments across a wide range of global underlying instruments and indices.

The system automatically creates documents both at the quote and execution stage of any trade, and allows investors to trade in “much smaller sizes than previously possible”, Barclays said in a statement. The bank is hosting a series of platform demonstrations to professional clients.

The platform is currently available to wealth managers across Europe, US and Asia, handling more than 90,000 intraday pricing requests a month.

“This click-and-trade functionality is leading-edge in the UK market and gives wealth managers full control over every bespoke trade for individual client portfolios, not just in terms of structure shape and terms but also with respect to timings and size,” said Lisa Chaudhuri, UK Investor Solutions, Barclays, said.

“COMET is a major step forward from existing online propositions in that it enables UK wealth managers to price, trade and execute flow structured investments, with documentation generated automatically for maximum efficiency.