Credit Suisse’s grip on electronic execution slips

Oct 15, 2012

Although Credit Suisse was voted by buy-side traders to be best for electronic trading, the field is far more competitive now.

Credit Suisse has been the acknowledged leader in electronic execution of equity trades in Asia, but that dominance is over, with other providers pulling even.

In AsianInvestor’s annual survey of buy-side equity traders, Credit Suisse won the vote for best in electronic trading, but by a narrow margin, with UBS and Morgan Stanley close behind. Among hedge funds, Morgan Stanley was the favourite.

Buy-sides increasingly value low-touch service. As volumes have declined in Asian equities, more traders have sought both the anonymity as well as the relatively lower cost of trading electronically.

Credit Suisse’s strength remains its algorithms, which are regarded as the most innovative in the business, according to our poll – although again, Morgan Stanley polled better among hedge funds.

In execution consulting, UBS came first among both hedge funds and long-only funds. Morgan Stanley and Deutsche Bank also polled well in this regard.

AsianInvestor asked respondents to pick and rank their top-three brokers, with extra weight given depending on the order of preference. We also gave some extra weight to shops with bigger AUM (taking into account size differences between long-only and hedge funds).

The survey was conducted over the course of September with 74 buy-side traders responding.