Trends in E-commerce 2018

The 2018 edition of this report, which is based on a 2017 survey of 20 investment banks, explores changes to the technology delivery processes within banks, e-commerce functionality across the pre-trade, trade execution and post-trade spaces, and it examines the key challenges for e-commerce providers in 2018 – which encompass the provision of e-commerce services across a range of channels. The analysis was based on the results of GreySpark’s Trends in E-commerce 2017 survey, which queried bank e-commerce thought leaders on: client segmentation; the competitive landscape; e-commerce functionality; refreshing the technology stack; e-commerce governance; and respondents’ view of the road ahead for sellside e-commerce franchises.

GreySpark previously identified the need to offer e-trading services across all asset and instrument classes, and to offer full front-to-back services as key competitive arenas in the past. The achievement of these objectives remains the proviso of only the most technologically-sophisticated banks. Further, banks are responding to increased buyside system connectivity demand by broadening the access channels to their e-commerce offerings. GreySpark believes that the efforts to provide full asset class, front-to-back coverage across both their single-dealer platform and via application programming interfaces is the key challenge in 2018.