SUNGARD LAUNCHES ASSENT ATS ALTERNATIVE TRADING SYSTEM

Posted June 22, 2009

NEW YORK -- SunGard has launched Assent ATS, an alternative trading system that provides a crossing network for US equity trade order flow. SunGard’s Assent ATS accesses liquidity by aggregating order flow from retail, institutional and high frequency customers of SunGard’s trading solutions such as Assent, Brass and GL solutions.

SunGard’s electronic crossing network provides an opportunity for customers to fill an order before they send it to displayed markets. Customers can also use the Assent Smart Order Router to participate in additional displayed and non-displayed markets. By leveraging the high volume of daily shares processed through SunGard’s trading solutions, the Assent ATS will help customers improve fill rates, reduce transaction costs and achieve faster trade execution with minimal market impact.

“When choosing a dark pool, firms are looking for liquidity, price improvement, match rates and speed,” according to Larry Tabb, founder and Chief Executive Officer of consultancy The Tabb Group. “Accessing only one dark pool with one type of order flow is no longer sufficient. The goal in executing against dark liquidity is to intercept order flow where it first enters into the execution stream – what is called unique liquidity. Firms will benefit most from dark pools with diverse unique liquidity, access to other dark and displayed markets, a mechanism that facilitates price improvement and technology that limits any if not all information leakage.”

SunGard’s Assent ATS provides firms with one execution point that has access to a diverse pool of liquidity, including other dark and displayed venues. Assent ATS is a component of SunGard’s trading solutions, which provides services at each point of the equity transaction lifecycle from order receipt, trading, and marketplace routing to post-trade analytics, compliance monitoring and clearing.

“With Assent ATS we are expanding into the execution space to help our customers improve their access to liquidity and achieve best execution,” says Raj Mahajan, President, Trading Business, SunGard. “SunGard’s trading solutions help customers reduce costs while generating revenue by automating and streamlining every point of the trade lifecycle. Assent ATS adds a critical slice to our 360 degree approach to trading, further helping our customers to benefit from economies of scale, with improved fill rates and reduced costs.”