Integral Goes Live with New UX for FX Platform

FX technology provider Integral has launched the latest version of its web-based trading platform, FX Inside (FXI), which includes an improved user experience (UX).

“The most important update in generation seven of FXI is that once the user gets their credentials, their user ID, and password, they can go to any device and get the same experience immediately,” says Vikas Srivastava, chief revenue officer at Integral. “All of the same services are included, such as advanced price discovery in different ways, order types and algos, charting and research.”

Integral provides services around four use cases: it is a single-dealer platform for banks, which white label the tech, and then offer it to their own clients; it also offers two iterations of the platform for salespeople and for traders, respectively, within banks; and another for e-FX traders and salespeople, who use the platform to run their FX businesses in the cloud. The user’s credentials determine which iteration of the platform they will experience, Srivastava says. 

The updated version of Integral’s technology now works with HTML5 browsers, which means that users can customize their own experience within the platform to suit their own specifications, Srivastava adds. Configurable workflow tools available through the platform include tick-by-tick charting, real-time blotters, advanced order types, and laddered and full-book pricing. The platform supports request-for-stream and executable streaming prices in spot, outrights and swaps, non-deliverable forwards, precious metals, and contracts-for-difference.

One of the advantages of HTML5 over previous iterations of the markup language is that plugins that used to be handled by Flash can now be built into the page and handled by the browser. All the major browser providers, including Google Chrome, Safari, Microsoft Edge, and Firefox, now support the language, which means that front-end developers can build apps that deliver the same experience to users across all the devices they might use.

“You can access that page on a browser, on your mobile phone or iPad, and it all looks and feels the same. HTML5 allows for quick updates and enhancements, while also allowing you to take other firms’ services and embed them within your page,” Srivastava  says.

Consumers in their private lives expect this uniformity of user experience from, say, Facebook, Netflix, or Amazon, Srivastava says, and “there’s no reason why this cannot be achieved with banks and their FX services.”

Additionally, the latest version of the platform is built on a ReactJS framework. ReactJS is an open-source JavaScript library developed by Facebook, and deployed in its News Feed and Instagram apps. It is used to create reusable user-interface components, for a more flexible user experience.

The updated FXI has been deployed across all of Integral’s trading user interfaces, including those of the company’s currency exchange, OCX, and its centrally cleared over-the-counter FX trading facility for the buy side, TrueFX.

Integral is also providing cloud architecture to be able to offer the end-to-end FXI 7.0 platform to bank and broker clients so that they, in turn, can offer their own FX services to their own customers in the cloud, Srivastava adds.