Electronic Broking Services
| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial services, Electronic trading platform |
| Founded | 1990 |
| Founder | Consortium of major FX market makers |
| Fate | Acquired by ICAP (NEX Group) in 2006; merged into NEX Markets in 2017; acquired by CME Group in 2018 |
| Successor | NEX Markets (rebranded organization) |
Area served | Global foreign exchange market |
| Products | EBS Spot, EBS Spot Ai, EBS Prime, EBS Metals, EBS NDFs, EBS Live, EBS Ticker, EBS Rates, EBS Data Mine |
| Owner | CME Group |
| Parent | CME Group |
Electronic Broking Services (EBS) operates as a wholesale electronic trading platform tailored for the foreign exchange market (FX), facilitating connections among market-making banks. Originating in 1990 through a consortium of prominent banks aiming to rival Reuters' supremacy in interbank spot FX trading, it subsequently became integrated into the CME Group.
History
Created in 1990 by key FX market makers, EBS aimed to introduce competition within the spot foreign exchange trading arena. By 2007, its central limit order book, known as EBS Market, managed daily spot FX volumes around US$164 billion.
EBS's primary rival is the London Stock Exchange Group's FX Matching platform. EBS holds a dominant position in major currency pairs including EUR/USD, USD/JPY, EUR/JPY, USD/CHF, EUR/CHF, and USD/CNH. In contrast, LSEG Matching mainly focuses on commonwealth and emerging market currencies.
The platform extended its services into electronic spot trading of precious metals such as gold, silver, platinum, and palladium. It continues to lead in spot gold and silver transactions within the Loco London Market.
EBS was an early adopter of algorithmic trading in spot FX via an API interface, with automated trading accounting for 60% of its total flow by 2007.
Expanding beyond spot FX and precious metals, EBS diversified its offerings to include NDFs, forwards, and FX options. It supports both RFQ and streaming trading methods in both disclosed and anonymous settings.
In June 2006, ICAP (currently known as NEX Group), the world's largest inter-dealer broker, acquired EBS.
In 2014, EBS joined forces with BrokerTec—a technology provider specializing in fixed income trading across US Treasuries, European Government Bonds, and European Repo markets—to create EBS BrokerTec.
The merged organization was rebranded as NEX Markets in 2017; however, the original platforms retained their individual names.
CME Group purchased NEX Markets in 2018, incorporating EBS into its suite of products.
Structure
The range of products offered by the company includes:
- EBS Spot: electronic broking platform for FX spot transactions
- EBS Spot Ai: API enabling client trading systems to connect with the EBS Spot marketplace
- EBS Prime: access for interbank and professional traders to premier EBS Spot pricing through EBS Prime banks
- EBS Metals: electronic broking service for spot precious metals
- EBS NDFs: electronic broking platform dedicated to non-deliverable FX pairs
- EBS Live: delivers low-latency live streaming prices directly to clients’ market data infrastructures
- EBS Ticker: distribution channel for third-party dissemination of EBS Spot pricing
- EBS Rates: desktop access to EBS Spot prices via platforms such as Thomson Reuters Eikon, 3000xtra, and Bloomberg Terminal
- EBS Data Mine: authenticated historical market data archive dating back to 1997