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e-FOREX : INTERVIEW<br />
RBS<br />
leading the way<br />
with integrated<br />
electronic<br />
FX solutions<br />
e-<strong>Forex</strong> talks with Michelle Neal, Global Head of Electronic Markets at The Royal Bank of<br />
Scotland about the consolidation of the banks' electronic platforms and the continuing<br />
development of its best of breed FX e-<strong>com</strong>merce solutions and e-trading tools.<br />
Michelle, RBSMarketplace, which was launched in<br />
2008, is the Royal Bank of Scotland’s portal giving<br />
customers access to all of RBS Global Banking &<br />
Markets electronic solutions in one place. In what<br />
ways has your own role evolved and changed with the<br />
development of this new portal?<br />
eCommerce has always been an integral part of the<br />
trading and distribution strategy at RBS with strong<br />
business engagement and consistent investment. In<br />
early 2008, we merged the Debt and FX eCommerce<br />
teams into an Electronic Markets function to leverage<br />
our <strong>com</strong>bined strengths and benefit from the associated<br />
synergies. I particularly wanted to move away from the<br />
word “eCommerce” and onto something more accurate<br />
and descriptive of eCommerce in a financial markets<br />
business and so Electronic Markets was born. Around<br />
this same time, we launched RBSMarketplace<br />
(“RBSM”), a platform with <strong>com</strong>mon architecture for<br />
RBS to leverage and build upon <strong>com</strong>pounding<br />
successes within the business. The line between the<br />
Electronic Markets business and our traditional<br />
businesses are more blurred as customers use electronic<br />
services and execution tools to <strong>com</strong>pliment their<br />
relationships with RBS.<br />
88 | january 2010 e-FOREX<br />
In addition, our touch points with the business have<br />
increased as clearing, credit risk, latency, and capacity<br />
are all factors that face both traditional and electronic<br />
businesses and need to be managed using better<br />
technology. We are a major conduit and centre of<br />
excellence within RBS for realising these synergies.<br />
My team has traditionally also been responsible for<br />
market structure initiatives and strategic investments<br />
within RBS. Combined with a delivery capability<br />
such as Electronic Markets, you get a powerful and<br />
highly coordinated continuum of activity spanning<br />
strategic alignment in our core markets, product<br />
development and delivery and distribution channels.<br />
So far, the progress made by Electronic Markets has<br />
been encouraging and RBSM has be<strong>com</strong>e a<br />
household name within RBS, The bank as a whole<br />
has tried to leverage the cross product nature of our<br />
product offering and client base to achieve<br />
coordination in servicing our customers and<br />
efficiencies in technology spend and delivery. Even<br />
the physical layout of our new offices in Stamford<br />
Connecticut is meant to create better<br />
<strong>com</strong>munications and smarter uses of internally and<br />
externally facing electronic markets products.
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