TFS-Icap completes Volbroker integration

Interbank broker TFS-Icap has completed the integration of online options broking platform Volbroker, following its December 1 acquisition of a stake in the bank-owned consortium.

Brokers at the firm are now using Volbroker to complement the existing voice-broking method - a model known as hybrid broking.

Mike Leibowitz, chief executive of TFS-Icap in New York, told RiskNews' sister publication FX Week. "So far the integration has gone well. The system is now working in all our offices globally and we are doing business on it everyday. Hybrid broking is something we are learning, but volumes are rising."

He said brokers were now "quite familiar" with the system. "It hasn’t been as difficult as expected."

Leibowitz claimed that job losses had been avoided, at least on the TFS-Icap side. "We plan on keeping our workforce as stable as possible, and so far things have gone very well and there have been no job cuts at TFS-Icap," he said. But Leibowitz declined to comment on job losses from Volbroker’s former staff.

TFS-Icap now competes squarely with GFInet and Cantor Fitzgerald, which also offer hybrid broking services for FX options. "Competition is healthy for the market, and there will always be competition. At the moment we are worrying about ourselves, not the competition," Leibowitz said.

TFS-Icap and Volbroker merged last December, with no "significant capital transfer". Profits from the venture are split between the two firms, but no details of the proportion of the split were made available.

Volbroker was launched in July 2000 by a consortium of six banks: Citibank, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Royal Bank of Scotland and UBS Warburg.

TFS-Icap was formed in June 2000 by the merger of TFS Group and Garban-Intercapital’s over-the-counter currency options businesses. The joint venture has offices in Frankfurt, London, New York, Singapore and Tokyo.