Tradition's Mike Anderson cheerful despite headwinds for energy brokers

Regulatory change and tough market conditions are creating deep uncertainty for energy brokers. But Tradition’s Mike Anderson remains optimistic about the business, he tells Stella Farrington

Brokers face an increasingly uncertain future. During the past decade, the steady migration from voice-brokered over-the-counter markets to hybrid electronic execution has transformed their business models. Now, a trend away from bilateral OTC markets towards central execution and clearing poses another big challenge.

In the US, provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act pushed much of the cleared OTC energy derivatives market towards exchanges in October 2012 – a phenomenon dubbed futurisation. There is