While technology has brought about significant transformation, the financial services industry is still, at its core, a complex business involving multiple counterparts, regulations and financial risk. Conversely, the role of a financial services provider is to deliver a simple, safe solution for the customer. Ideally, this means the financial services provider controls its customers’ experience while engaging on a B2B basis with other providers of needed services around the world. This requires working on an omnibus account basis, necessitating specialized technology, knowledge and experience.
When done well, an omnibus model not only enables financial services firms to deliver a simplified user experience to their retail customers – it also generates additional revenue streams and cost reductions versus fully disclosing retail accounts to foreign brokers. These include FX spread in taking in local currency and delivering settlement currency, reduced bank wire fees, tax advantages, control over KYC, onboarding and much more.
Enter ViewTrade. Now in our third decade of serving the unique needs of financial institutions, our complete omnibus offering is the ideal solution for financial services firms seeking to maintain their exclusive relationship with their retail and institutional clients. Thanks to our innovative and comprehensive combination of technology, support and brokerage services, we have helped over 300 firms create the differentiating experiences that individual traders and investors demand.
With our omnibus solution, financial firms can either maintain their customers’ accounts on their own technology, or license our Watchmen OMS technology to carry and service their customers’ accounts on their books and records, while maintaining an omnibus account with our brokerage entity to execute their equity and option trades in the United States, Canada and select major markets in other countries. The financial firm controls its customers’ experience, with ViewTrade operating in the background on behalf of the financial firm.
This dynamic reflects one of our core philosophies: we are strictly a B2B firm, serving as a partner to our financial services clients, never a competitor. We are 100% focused on helping our financial services clients grow, and we succeed only when they do.
One of the most crucial considerations in any omnibus arrangement is ensuring orders flow seamlessly from the client-facing platform to the executing broker. It’s essential to ensure that the customer accounts are fully reconciled to the omnibus account, and that the operational and informational transition from the omnibus account to the retail customer brokerage account is automated and efficient, with minimal or no manual steps. We offer an array of options for these purposes, including our Watchmen OMS (encompassing real-time account management, compliance and customer support) and our NOMAD suite of services (encompassing custody, books and records, segregation and margin), as well as a comprehensive suite of APIs that our clients can leverage to light up their proprietary platforms, FIX connectivity that can be connected via a variety of providers such as Bloomberg, Refinitiv and Fidessa (or directly via VPN), and client-facing white-label platforms that can be customized to the local language.
And that’s just the beginning. We offer solutions for every step of the trade lifecycle, giving our clients the flexibility to allocate their resources wherever they want and license the rest from us. Here’s a quick rundown:
• A comprehensive array of brokerage services, from conventional transactions to fractional share trading, securities lending, corporate services and more
• A wide variety of content, news and research so investors can keep their finger on the pulse of the markets
• Market data services that simplify the complexity and cost firms face in licensing and distributing quotes to their customers
• Fully digital and comprehensive account onboarding and management services, including integrated KYC vendors, document digitalization, compliance- and rule-based workflows, and real-time customer support tools
• Experienced support to help financial intermediaries comply with IRS rules as either a Qualified Intermediary or Non-Qualified Intermediary
We deliver all of this with a keen understanding of the logistical realities retail brokers face. That’s why we pair our clients not just with a relationship manager, but a personalized support team as well. It’s also why we offer a flexible pricing structure to support any business model. We make it our business to know our clients’ business – and our omnibus solution is one of the most powerful illustrations of that fact.
With clients in 29 countries and a deeply experienced team of experts, we empower financial services firms to stand up new revenue-generating opportunities that support every one of their customers’ needs. With our ever-expanding suite of APIs, trading technology and service offerings, we are the force that powers fintech, and we’re poised to maintain that position for years to come.
Want to learn more about our omnibus solution? Drop us a line.
