FX news: Societe Generale puts users first on platform

Barely a week goes by without a bank or ECN launching or upgrading a platform, so we weren’t cock-a-hoop when the news that Societe Generale had launched an FX single-dealer platform landed on our desks last week.

Still, it turns out there is something new to Alpha FX, so we headed down to SocGen towers in EC3 for a closer look and discovered that what really sets it apart from more established platforms is that it is, unlike some others, quite intuitive to use.

The platform is aimed at institutional clients and large corporates. For techno-geeks, it is a RIA that runs through the internet, so there is nothing to download to the desktop and no irritating updates to install. It was built using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, much like Nomura’s FX SDP NomuraLive.

The platform was built entirely in-house between January and July this year by teams in London and Paris, a break from the past when they relied on white-label products.

Stephane Malrait, global head of e-commerce, and Reine Dossou, head of e-business for treasury, FX and derivatives, say that Alpha FX was a direct reaction to customer needs. And what the customer wants is for platforms to be designed with the user experience – or UX in the parlance – in mind.

“Single dealer platforms are still very important for the FX business, and customers said they would like more flexibility and something that was user-friendly and flexible to their needs,” says Malrait.

Societe Generale can take credit for being one of the first banks to really take the idea of UX on board and design a platform that takes up little screen space and is so simple to use that no user guide would be required.

Morgan Stanley’s Matrix was one of the first to focus heavily on design; Caplin Systems launched a UX design service in July; while Oanda has posted a job specification for a UX designer this week. So clearly the user experience is where the future lies for platforms.

Alpha FX sits unobtrusively as a small cube-shaped window on the desktop, meaning customers can trade and keep an eye on prices without having to open or minimize large windows – unless of course they want to view all the available currency pairs.

Malrait explains: “It’s a new concept in the FX business. No one has given a three dimensional approach to a product before. Each face of the cube represents something different to do with the selected currency pair. With each rotation of the cube, you can see graphs, historical data, market depths and the trades you did with that pair.”

Particular attention was given to the colour scheme. “We did a lot of research into colour schemes,” says Malrait. “Between July and September, the colour scheme really changed. It was very colourful and the feedback was that it too tiring for the eyes, so we added more black and removed colours that didn’t work on screen like red, and left green and blue for the order confirmation pop-ups. It’s really a concept that didn’t exist before, but now it’s a very important part of platform building.”

The platform was rolled out internally to the sales teams worldwide in July, before being pilot tested by clients in Europe, Asia, US and Africa from September.

“We showed it at client events in Europe, Asia, the US. The feedback was positive – it looks different and fresh; they liked the cube design and the easily available research,” says Malrait. “We’ve been testing it intensively worldwide with a variety of clients to be absolutely sure that we’ve got it right. Our last pilot phase is expected to finish by the end of the year; then we’ll roll it out to clients in January next year.”

The bank is keen to play to its strengths in emerging market currencies, so it is sticking to what it knows and for the moment is offering spot, forwards, swaps and NDFs on those currencies, as well as G10.

Societe Generale has had a shake up in its FX business over the last few years and is confident that Alpha FX will help it make its mark.

Dossou says: “The platform is the tip of the iceberg in terms of our FX business. We’ve really grown it over the last three years – we now have sales coverage globally with a 24-hour support line and we’ve put a lot of resources into building capacities in Asia, US and Europe.”