Vexo Technology Solutions Corp. has struck a partnership with Credit Suisse Securities (Canada) Inc., both based in Toronto, in which Credit Suisse will act as the executing broker and custodian for Vexo’s ETFBahn platform, which provides mutual fund dealers and their financial advisors direct access to ETFs.
“It’s an end-to-end solution,” says Fotis Saratsiotis, Vexo’s president, “because from an advisor’s desktop it goes right through Vexo to Credit Suisse, to the market, and back onto Vexo [ETFBahn].”
Prior to this partnership, Vexo’s order-management platform was not connected to an executing broker or custodian. Now, trades executed through the ETFBahn platform will flow through Credit Suisse’s Advanced Execution Services, which will provide record keeping, execution and custody services to those dealers using ETFBahn.
“Being able to partner with Credit Suisse,” says Liliana Soto, director, advanced execution services, Credit Suisse, “[as] the mutual fund dealer, you don’t have to worry about how to tie in a smooth operation within the firm from front to back.”
Now that the ETFBahn platform is fleshed out, the next step is to bring clients on board. At the moment, two dealers have tested out Vexo’s platform with Credit Suisse, says Graham Jones, director, Credit Suisse Prime Services, adding that a formal partnership with a mutual fund dealer will likely be announced in the coming weeks.
“We’re in the process of finalizing the paper work on the custody and electronic trading agreements,” Jones says.
This is the second partnership that Vexo has announced in the past year. In November 2017, Vexo entered into an agreement to offer Toronto-based JustWealth Financial Inc.’s ETF portfolios.
As part of the agreement, advisors using ETFBahn can select individual ETFs or a portfolio designed and managed by JustWealth, a robo-advisor platform. Now, all trades conducted on ETFBahn will flow through Credit Suisse, whether it’s an individual ETF or a JustWealth portfolio.