Who Are City Index?
City Index is an established player in the financial services sector with a rich history spanning 40 years. As a multi-asset financial service provider, they have consistently been recognized in the industry, winning numerous awards over the years. City Index specializes in providing instant access to a vast range of over 13,500 markets. Their services, which include spread betting and CFDs, are facilitated through both their proprietary trading platforms and the well-known MetaTrader platform.
One of the key features of City Index is their advanced execution technology. This technology is designed to offer a significant advantage in rapidly changing markets, boasting an impressive average execution time of 0.02 seconds and a 99.99% success rate in trade execution. This level of efficiency and reliability is a significant factor in why they have over 1,000,000 traders using their services.
The Challenge:
City Index, navigating through a highly competitive and rapidly evolving market, identified the need to enhance their Institutional platform capabilities, specifically by integrating a FIX (Financial Information eXchange) Platform. This strategic decision was crucial for their growth, but it posed significant challenges. The company's core development team was already fully engaged in various critical tasks, including enhancing, developing, and migrating existing systems. Moreover, they lacked the specialized in-house expertise required for the implementation of the FIX Protocol.
Understanding the complexity and the specialized nature of this task, City Index sought an external partner that not only had a deep understanding of the FIX protocol but also possessed extensive experience in the financial sector. This partner needed to have the capability to operate autonomously, developing the FIX Platform in collaboration with City Index's internal development and Institutional sales teams.
Redev, with its proven track record and extensive experience in FIX Platforms and Financial Trading Systems, was chosen for this vital role. Redev's expertise positioned them ideally to tackle the challenges presented by this project and to work effectively alongside City Index's teams to achieve the desired outcomes.
The Solution:
In response to the challenges identified, Redev initiated the solution by collaborating closely with City Index's Institutional Sales team. The primary task was to create a comprehensive FIX Protocol Rule of Engagement (ROE) document for City Index's institutional clients. This document was meticulously developed to cover three critical services: FIX Order, FIX Price, and FIX Back Office. The goal was to design a best-in-class FIX Protocol (ROE) that was perfectly aligned with the capabilities of City Index's internal Trading Platform. This alignment was crucial to ensure full development of all services while adhering to the stringent conventions of the FIX Protocol.
A notable aspect of this project was the timing; City Index's core development team was concurrently engaged in several migration projects. Therefore, a significant feature of our solution was the integration of FIX Services using the existing internal APIs of City Index's current trading platform. This approach not only streamlined the development process but also ensured consistency and compatibility with their existing system.
Upon completion of the development phase, Redev's role extended to providing comprehensive FIX Onboarding documentation and support. This was instrumental in facilitating a smooth and successful rollout of the new platform. As a testament to our effective collaboration and technical proficiency, Redev continues to be a trusted partner for City Index, offering ongoing support and feature enhancements to the system, thereby ensuring its continuous improvement and relevance in a dynamic market environment.
Redev's expertise in the FIX Protocol and Trading Platform was instrumental in enabling City Index to rapidly and professionally deploy a FIX Institutional Platform to the market. At a time when our internal resources were fully committed to core technology projects, it was Redev's expertise and knowledge that were pivotal in ensuring the timely delivery of this product.
Mike Lear, Group CTO
City Index