Instimatch Global, the award-winning digital platform disrupting institutional money markets, has launched Munix, a new independent online platform specifically designed for the unique trading needs of the UK’s local authorities and other public sector bodies. The platform has gone live today, with a number of leading local authorities currently being onboarded.
Instimatch Global partnered with a top UK public sector focused team led by Managing Director Kevin Thompson to develop Munix, which utilises Instimatch’s proven money markets trading technology. Kevin Thompson, and Director Billie Croan, bring decades of experience within the global money markets industry, including extensive public sector experience.
UK local government treasury management is a complex, specialised area requiring expert stewardship. Local authorities have large, fluctuating cash positions, and shifts in bank credit ratings and ultra-low rates have complicated treasury management in recent years, at a time when council budgets have been under unprecedented pressures.
Unsecured money markets, uniquely across financial instruments, are still mainly traded via the phone, and the resulting inefficiencies and lack of transparency are highly visible within the inter-local government deposits market. High transaction costs, particularly with brokerage fees, are a major problem. With council treasury teams often smaller today, there is a pressing need for greater efficiency and better workflow.
Munix aims to improve the efficiency and productivity of council treasury teams, while driving substantial cost savings. Munix allows a treasurer to place, negotiate and record all dealings in an extremely simple and efficient manner. The benefits include full market price discovery, making it easy to identify more counterparties and open up new valuable trading connections. A wider range of bids and offers lead to a deeper market, creating better pricing for both borrowers and lenders.
Munix is linked to Instimatch’s international money markets platform, showing interbank prices and thus enabling local councils to diversify their liquidity and optimise cash portfolios within strict risk parameters. Users of Munix and of the Instimatch platform can choose whether they wish to opt into bids and offers from the other platform.
Munix also reduces operational risk, lowers transaction costs and provides proof of best execution, together with a fully functional chat facility.
Kevin Thompson commented: “We looked at how we could take inefficiencies out of public sector money market activity. Partnering with a fintech leader like Instimatch meant we could deliver a tested, robust system, with the infrastructure and support to make Munix the optimal platform for the sector. Munix offers local authority treasury departments a modern, secure, transparent and competitive service. Through online dealing, we bring better price discovery, greater liquidity, and cost savings, along with market intelligence and news. Our market research makes us confident that Munix will find broad appeal in assisting UK local authorities in fulfilling their public duty of ensuring the most effective use of public funds.”
In the past three years, Zurich-based Instimatch Global has become a significant disruptor in European money markets, as treasurers start to shift to digital platforms. Its volumes have grown substantially in 2020, reflecting both short term conditions as Covid made treasurers more open to innovation, and an acceleration of underlying trends. So far in 2020, transactions amounting to over $30 billion have been arranged on the Instimatch Global platform.
Daniel Sandmeier, CEO of Instimatch Global, commented: “We found a great team in Kevin Thompson and Billie Croan to tackle the specific challenges of the UK local authority sector. Munix is a natural complement to our European platform, which is used by many European corporates and banks, but also, for example, by Swiss public sector bodies. Munix combines a team with huge expertise in the UK local authority money markets together with Instimatch’s proven technology.”
Since its launch in 2017, Instimatch Global has been at the forefront of disrupting the traditional ways in which money markets operate, attracting to its trading network around 130 active banks, corporates, other institutional borrowers and lenders and public sector bodies from 19 countries across the UK, Europe and the Middle East. By connecting borrowers with lenders within the huge unsecured money markets, the network provides more efficient access, better pricing and the ability to diversify counterparty risk. The firm won the Swiss Fintech Awards in March 2020 and was shortlisted for a second consecutive year in the Financial News Trading and Technology awards.
