Reuters To Buy Money Match, Sequor's Eurodeposit System

Reuters Holdings PLC is set to acquire Money Match, an order-matching system for money market deposits and derivative instruments developed by Security Pacific National Bank's Sequor Group unit. The two companies are in final stages of negotiation regarding the purchase, according to sources close to the deal.

Money Match isn't currently in use by Security Pacific. But sources say a prototype version of the system has been demonstrated to interested parties.

The system is designed to match orders in money market deposits -- such as Eurodollar deposits -- and such derivative instruments as interest-rate swaps and forward rate agreements.

Officials at Sequor Group decline to comment on any aspect of the system. Tim Scala, project manager for Money Match, also declines to comment on Reuters' interest in the system.

A Reuters spokesman declines to comment specifically on the proposed Money Match acquisition. Managing director Peter Job recently told securities analysts that Reuters had established a group to identify and make acquisitions.

Sources close to Reuters say Rosalyn Wilton, senior vice president, transaction products, is handling the purchase for the company. Wilton recently took over in negotiations with Sequor from her boss, John Hull, executive vice president. Reuters last year announced that Hull, whose responsibilities include the tardy Dealing 2000-2 and Globex futures-trading system, won't renew his contract with the company when it expires this summer.

Wilton referred calls seeking comment to a Reuters spokesman, who cited the company's policy of not commenting on such "rumors." But sources say Reuters has agreed to pay $2.9 million for the system. These sources add that ongoing negotiations involve discussions on how many, if any, Sequor staff would be hired by Reuters to sell and maintain the system. The sources say that Sequor had hired a number of marketing staff to handle sales of the system.

Technical details of Money Match are sketchy. But sources say the system host is a DEC VAX minicomputer running VMS. The matching software is written in C. It isn't clear whether Reuters plans to operate the system independently of its other order-matching systems -- Dealing 2000-2 and Globex -- or intends to merge Money Match with one or the other. Both Dealing 2000-2 and Globex run on VAX/VMS host systems.

Sources say a key player involved in the design of Money Match is William Donner, who worked on Sequor Group's PriceWatch digital data distribution system before it was sold to DEC in 1989. Donner couldn't be reached for comment.

According to sources familiar with the system, Money Match was developed cold by Sequor staffers. Sources say Sequor didn't use any element of the former SPATS (Security Pacific Automated Trading System) that was based on Intex Holdings (Bermuda) Ltd.'s Automated Trading System software.

Sequor sold SPATS to Chapdelaine & Co. Government Securities Inc. Chapdelaine, in turn, sold the software -- renamed CHATS -- to EJV Brokerage Inc. EJV currently uses it for trading in U.S. government securities. Intex's trading system software has also formed part of Telerate Systems Inc.'s now-defunct Arena order-routing system and RMJ Securities Corp.'s Over-the-counter Options Trading System.

Sources close to Sequor say that according to the original business plan for the system, Money Match had been slated for installation in up to 20 cities in the U.S. The Money Match network was to have been supported by microprocessor-based regional nodes. User input for the system is via PC. The system also features credit control software running on PCs at each user site.

Money Match appears to have fallen foul of the political wrangling over systems sparked by the planned merger of Security Pacific and Bank of America. Sources say the ascendancy of Bank of America Systems Engineering division chief Martin Stein to head technology at the merged bank (TST, Sept. 9, 1991) has affected technology development projects under way at Security Pacific.