Macro events have defined the FX markets over the last few years. The onset of Covid-19 pandemic in 2022 created huge volatility and a shortage of liquidity as financial markets saw extreme movement and economies temporarily stalled. While volatility returned to more ‘normal’ levels in 2021, major supply chain issues and the medium term impacts of Covid-19 continued to disrupt markets. This year, the Russia-Ukraine crisis has once again caused a major spike in volatility as clients evaluate their FX risk. Altogether, this has created a challenging and uncertain environment for FX market participants. Whether a corporate looking to manage its FX exposure or a hedge fund in need of quick access to liquidity, clients are in greater need of an FX platform they can rely on.
BNP Paribas has continued to support its FX clients with its single-dealer platform, Cortex FX, providing a single point of access to a range of digital products, tools and services from the bank. As a result of its constant development, BNP Paribas has been able to provide clients with liquidity on a wide range of currency pairs and products, even throughout the most challenging periods, as well as a host of analytics tools available through the platform – an important benefit to clients looking to navigate the shifting market conditions. As a result of its continued support to clients, Financial News awarded BNP Paribas Best Foreign Exchange Trading Platform at its Trading and Technology Awards 2022.
We constantly enhance our platform, leveraging the latest technology, and have been able to offer a consistent and uninterrupted service throughout the volatile market conditions
Joe Nash, Foreign Exchange, Local Markets and Commodities eCOO at BNP Paribas.
“We are delighted to win Best Foreign Exchange Trading Platform for Cortex FX,” commented Joe Nash, Foreign Exchange, Local Markets and Commodities eCOO at BNP Paribas. “We constantly enhance our platform, leveraging the latest technology, and have been able to offer a consistent and uninterrupted service throughout the volatile market conditions. We would like to thank our clients for their continued trust in us and are truly honoured to win this award.”
The rise of virtual trading assistants
Another trend that has continued to emerge in the FX markets is the use of virtual trading assistants. With the majority of FX transactions happening digitally, banks have harnessed data to provide sophisticated digital tools to support client’s trade needs and provide innovative analytics tools. For example, BNP Paribas introduced the first virtual assistant ALiX. Using Natural Language Processing (NLP), users can interact with ALiX in plain English, request information about a trade, give orders and it will understand and respond instantly.
The demand for these types of tools was accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, where traditional communication methods were challenged and clients were in greater need of analytics and trade support. As a result, in 2021, BNP Paribas expanded ALiX to cover the full product suite in Cortex FX whilst also making it available as a small widget that fits neatly into the corner of a client’s screen. These client centric enhancements have allowed BNP Paribas to offer a trusted and high performance FX platform to its clients, which Financial News recognised at its Trading and Technology Awards.