LiquidityBook Opens Sydney Office

Trading solutions provider LiquidityBook has opened an office in Sydney to support its growing expansion within the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. 

Chief revenue officer Sean Sullivan says clients have shown increasing interest in trading into APAC as a result of the overall growth in the region in the past few years, as well as the maturation of the Asia market. 

“Our US and Europe-based clients need local support as they hunt for alpha, and our new Sydney office fulfils that need. In addition, we think it will prove valuable to have a foothold in the APAC region as we work to expand our client base around the world,” he tells WatersTechnology. 

Sullivan says the new office will connect LiquidityBook with a large potential client base and will serve as a “good jumping off point” for the rest of Asia. 

The vendor has also hired Andre Meintjes as its new APAC client services lead, responsible for deploying bespoke enhancements and white-glove support to both APAC-based clients and clients trading into the region. 

Sullivan says LiquidityBook’s software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based LBX enables it to efficiently develop bespoke solutions to respond to client issues, often in a matter of days. 

LBX is a portfolio, order and execution management system that services the buy side and the sell side. It also provides FIX network connectivity, compliance and pre- and post-trade processing solutions. LBX is delivered via the cloud using Amazon Web Services’ global presence and architecture. 

“Our clients’ needs are incredibly diverse, so the custom solutions we put together really run the gamut. Recently, we built a major enhancement to a client’s automatic order-marking capabilities, which automatically designate sell orders as either ‘long’ or ‘short’. This ensures compliance with Regulation SHO, which can be difficult for firms offering multi-manager platforms. Whatever the enhancement, our support personnel work closely with the client to provide superior service and a nuanced approach,” Sullivan says. 

Regulation SHO was implemented on January 3, 2005 and aims to update legislation on short-sale practices. 

Meintjes previously served as a support officer for ABN Amro Clearing’s global execution services arm, where he worked with clients to deploy algorithms for various markets and was responsible for a range of compliance operations. Prior to that, he worked in derivatives dealing and operations at Peregrine Derivatives, managing direct market access and internal trades. 

He takes over from previous APAC client services head Matthew Howard, who now serves as head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and APAC support. Sullivan says Howard will continue to focus on the firm’s European client base that trades in Asia, as well as other clients trading into the EMEA region. 

The Sydney office will be opened by Andy Carroll, who left Twitter in 2017 to join LiquidityBook as chief architect. 

LiquidityBook continues to see a market for full SaaS-based solutions, as more firms using legacy technology providers start to look for options. Sullivan says the firm will continue investing in its client service, support and development teams to meet this growing need.