Fimat signs up for Egar's energy trading system

Fimat, the US-based brokerage firm, has signed up to Egar Technology’s Focus system for trading energy and commodity derivatives. Egar is a New York-based technology firm that offers trading systems for over-the-counter and exchange-traded interest rate derivatives, fixed-income and foreign exchange derivatives, as well as commodity and energy derivatives.

“[Focus] provided the desired flexibility to handle a wide range of structured over-the-counter energy derivatives products, such as average strip options on energy indexes or baskets of indexes,” said Jean-Pierre Valeri, Fimat’s director of credit and market risk management. “Focus was also the only modular system that we encountered, which could be grown to cover new products and other desks as future needs arise.”

Millennium Environmental Group, a subsidiary of US-based Unisource Energy, has also signed up to use Focus, primarily to manage risk on coal and emissions derivatives.

Michael Aitken, senior vice-president at Egar, told RiskNews that the firm is expecting to sign up another large energy broker shortly. US brokers Cantor Fitzgerald and Carr Futures already use Focus for energy trading. “We’re getting a lot of interest in our energy trading system at the moment, maybe because firms are re-evaluating their trading needs following the collapse of Enron,” said Aitken, who added that Egar’s competitors include New York-based energy technology firm Caminus.