The five largest Canadian banking groups have signed contracts to join FX Connect, State Street Corp’s multi-bank electronic foreign exchange trading system designed exclusively for institutional investors.

Scotia Capital, CIBC World Markets, TD Securities, Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank of Canada will now offer electronic foreign exchange trading on the State Street-developed system.

Launched in 1996 and open to multiple counterparties since last year, FX Connect allows institutional investors to trade foreign exchange with multiple banks in a real-time, interactive environment. Designed to fully interface with clients’ existing systems, FX Connect is able to transact spot, forward and swap block trades across an unlimited number of portfolios through multiple banks. This offers significant flexibility and transactional efficiencies. It also enables investment managers to more effectively integrate foreign exchange trading into their portfolio execution process.

“In markets as specialized and competitive as Canada, our domestic financial institutions clearly recognize the value of optimizing their clients’ investment management strategies,” said Denis Couillard, vice president of State Street’s Global Link Canada.

Noting that 18 of Canada’s largest investment managers currently use Global Link, Couillard continued, “With FX Connect, these leading banking groups are providing institutional investors with an important new trading tool that enables transactions to be conducted through unlimited portfolios with multiple banks in multiple currencies – on a secure private network.”