Awaiting the arrival of the 'meta' platform

Banks and technology providers are firmly in the mix when it comes to creating sophisticated platforms on which private bankers and even retail advisers can build structured products. But complications are preventing a clear sense of when the multi-dealer or full-service ‘meta’ platform will be in widespread use. Richard Jory reports

It often seems like technology platforms offer the ultimate dilemma. In one world, they present efficient and speedy pathways to knowledge and success; in another, they are expensive, do not always work and deny the relationship contact that is the lifeblood of most product creators and salespeople.

But that has not stopped a deluge of derivatives providers from spending more cash on the development of either single-dealer platforms or, in some cases, an extension of the same techniques into the