The newfound stability for these execution franchises is manifesting itself in sellside equities business headcounts globally levelling off at about 70% of pre-financial crisis levels, and in overall investment banking equities trading revenues becoming less variable and now approaching USD 100bn in a gradual fashion. Concurrently, sellside trader workflows changed radically over the past decade, resulting in the birth of so-called ‘how-touch’ trading. In 2018, the workflows for high- and low-touch bank traders are largely identical, and differentiation in workflows relies on the frequency and manner in which those traders manually interact or intervene with the electronically submitted client order as it passes through different parts of the bank’s technology stack.
Trading functionality – particularly in the low-touch space – is largely commoditised, leaving banks with little scope for competitive differentiation. In light of the technological commoditisation of the functional stacks of cash equities and equities derivatives trading technology solutions, banks can now choose from a range of vendor-provided systems, taking advantage of cost savings without sacrificing functionality. Going forward, large banks will look to differentiate themselves through bespoke extension of otherwise commoditised technology stack functionality.
