Enhances tools to help buy-side trading desks evaluate brokers and manage commissions
Eze Software Group, a premier provider of global investment technology, has made several enhancements to its commission management offering. Eze Software released a new web-based tool, Broker Review, which helps buy-side firms efficiently evaluate their brokers. Broker Review redesigns and unifies the broker evaluation tools previously available in separate products within Eze Software’s commission management offering, putting more control over the broker vote into the buy-side’s hands.
With Broker Review, a buy-side firm can configure its broker vote, allowing the firm’s stakeholders to assess their brokers on selected attributes such as execution, research, and investment ideas. The tool is built on Eze Software’s Cloud framework, which was introduced in 2014.
The launch comes on the heels of Eze Software Group’s acquisition of two commission management products, Broker Select and RECAP, from Financial Sockets* in a deal that closed December 31, 2014. Broker Select is a global web-based evaluation system for brokers and research providers, and RECAP is a research and execution cost analysis platform that addresses mandates in reporting commission utilization in an unbundled environment. With these acquisitions, Eze Software now has more than 100 buy-side firms using its commission management offering.
Eze Software complements its industry-leading technology with a dedicated consulting team of commission specialists who have years of experience implementing Eze Software’s solutions and addressing clients’ commission-related concerns. “We’ve been a leader in commission management technology for years, and the recent regulatory changes in the U.K., combined with investor demand from other regions in the world, are generating a renewed interest in our capabilities. These recent moves strengthen our combined offering and position us to continue to build a more comprehensive and robust solution for our clients,” said Rob Keller, CFA, executive managing director of product management and development for Eze Software Group.
Broker Review is the second key component to be added to Eze Software’s new Cloud platform in just under a year. Since the start of 2013, Eze Software has substantially increased R&D, enabling the company to continue to deliver enhancements on its core product lines while also simultaneously developing a Cloud platform that will bring together the collective capabilities of its product suite into an integrated front-to-back investment workflow. “In 2015 we are ramping up development efforts even further on the platform, and we look forward to bringing our clients more cloud-based tools and features,” Keller said.
*Financial Sockets is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Street Corporation.