Industry newcomer Hudson Fintech has unveiled a new securities finance front-office technology platform for sell-side and buy-side institutions, based on core technology unique to financial markets.
The Hudson Company’s mission statement states that its goal is to revolutionize processes and tackle the “stagnant financial software market”.
According to Hudson, its software captures and displays trade and market data, provides real-time position blotters and analytics, and supports end-to-end workflow processes.
It also promises to improve efficiency and risk management, while reducing transaction processing costs.
In a statement on the launch, Hudson said the platform gives financial institutions more ownership and control over trading operations, while the software provides the tools and capabilities for customers to quickly adapt to changing changes in the regulatory landscape, such as securities financing transactions. Regulation.
Hudson was co-founded in March by Michael Walliss, who serves as CEO, Troy Peterson, who serves as product technical lead, and Dietmar Nowatschek, who is product owner.
Walliss brings experience managing tech start-ups, while Peterson specializes as a lead developer of trading systems focused on repos, prime brokerage and fixed income.
Nowatschek has over 22 years of experience in the global banking industry, both on the vendor and client side, and has focused on analysis and development in the front and middle office areas.
under the hood
The Hudson platform is built on an advanced system architecture, known as the Entity Component System (ECS), which was first developed by the online gaming industry to enable software patching. regularly with minimal disruption to players.
Thus, Hudson’s new ECS technology platform is designed to be implemented quickly, in parallel with existing systems, with little regression testing.
The ECS architecture works with a data model where all objects become individual entities to which arbitrary data can be added or removed at runtime, Hudson explained in the statement.
Business logic is implemented as unique behaviors that operate on combinations of attached data components.
This new style of data model aims to address legacy issues, where traditional “hierarchical” systems are interdependent on other system components, Hudson added.
Hudson promises that with fewer interdependencies, its platform can be flexible in the event of regulatory or technological change in the company, as well as faster to develop and ultimately less expensive.
The fintech added that this is achieved by largely reusing existing code with continuous automated testing, meaning less time is spent on manual regression testing.
As a result, Hudson aims to drastically reduce the time it takes to upgrade systems and reduce typical licensing fees by up to 50%, which it says reflects institutions’ needs for cost reduction and increase in efficiency.
Why start now?
A Hudson spokesperson confirmed that the platform is now live but currently has no customers on board, although several sell-side institutions are testing with Hudson’s software.
The spokesperson added that the impetus behind the new platform was banks’ demand for a more modular and lightweight technology solution that would meet the new demands of today’s securities finance market environment, including post-crisis regulatory frameworks.
As a result, Hudson was created to meet the new requirements of financial institutions for increased regulatory reporting and transparency, improved risk management processes and balance sheet constraints.
In his launch statement, Hudson pointed out that regulators around the world are demanding increased data control and reporting, which has led many financial institutions to overhaul their outdated legacy systems, typically using multiple complementary technologies, which limit the flow and efficiency of trading operations.
As financial markets continue to evolve, many large sell-side and buy-side institutions are moving away from hard-to-install end-to-end technology solutions, Hudson said.
The fintech added that specialist companies are able to offer easy-to-implement technology modules that address specific problems without affecting the entire technology stack.
Rupert Bull, CEO of The Disruption House, a banking technology consultant currently reviewing Hudson, said: “As many existing technology platforms reach end of life, we are seeing demand for a new tech player in the business. pensions.”
“There is also a desire to take a component-based approach, as opposed to implementing enterprise systems.”
