Lehman algorithms rise from the grave

The electronic trading system used by the failed investment bank Lehman Brothers has been brought back from the dark side and revived thanks to Nomura.

The direct market access (DMA) and algorithms system is known as ModelEx and the platform connects to equity markets in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia. Nomura expects to launch the service in India, Taiwan and Korea by April 2009.

Lehman had already introduced its algorithms service to India last summer, and at about the same time brought Ryan Nelson to Asia to manage its customised hedging solutions product for the group, which was an electronic hedge selection service. However, the firm went bankrupt shortly afterwards.

The new Nomura product is being targeted at long-only clients, hedge funds, pension funds, and other institutional investors

Nomura has picked up the Lehman Brothers electronic trading team, including the quantitative analytics team, developers of the algorithms, information technology and operations personnel. The business is led by former Lehman managing director Rob Laible.

Previously, Nomura had been active in the Japan equities market in both DMA and direct strategy access (DSA), utilising its algorithmic platform called Experts.