ITG Plans Transaction-Cost Tool for Foreign Exchange

Investment Technology Group Inc. (ITG), a brokerage and financial technology firm, will offer tools to measure the cost of trading in the foreign-exchange market as fund managers seek to manage their expenses.

ITG’s transaction-cost-analysis product will use data from 10 providers and complements the firm’s tool for studying equities, the New York-based company said in an e-mailed statement today.

“Foreign exchange is the largest and most liquid securities trading market, but it is also among the least transparent and most challenging to trade in,” Ian Domowitz, head of ITG analytics, said in the statement. The new service seeks to “measure performance, improve execution processes and quality and fulfill compliance requirements.”

Transaction-cost analysis, which allows funds to measure trading performance and gauge whether they are getting best execution, is expanding beyond equities as banks seek to cut costs following the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. ITG’s product will compete with Abel Noser Corp., which on April 17 said it’s starting a similar service.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nandini Sukumar in London at nsukumar@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Andrew Rummer at arummer@bloomberg.net