BlackRock wants own trading platform
BLACKROCK plans to create its own global trading platform which could help save its clients significant amounts of money in trading fees.
The asset manager, set to become the world’s largest money manager with roughly $3 trillion (£1.79 trillion) in assets when it buys Barclays Global Investors (BGI) later this year, is in the early stages of developing the platform, says a leaked memo.
Minder Cheng, who came to BlackRock through the planned BGI acquisition, has been appointed to lead the development of a “new world-class global trading platform across the firm,” it said.
The platform will “fully realise the cost efficiencies and trading opportunities across all asset classes as we become one of the largest trading operations in the world”, it added.
Traditionally, asset managers like BlackRock rely heavily on Wall Street firms like Goldman Sachs to trade securities for them. Some of the asset management industry’s biggest players have recently balked at the trading fees Wall Street banks can earn and begun work on setting up their own platforms to cut costs.
But BlackRock is expected to continue to use Wall Street firms to provide liquidity.