Futures commission merchants are preparing a significant surge in post-trade technology spending over the next three years as outdated systems become unsustainable. Research firm Acuiti, partnering with Nasdaq, surveyed fifty clearing brokers worldwide and found sixty-nine percent plan to increase post-trade budgets, with nearly half targeting increases above ten percent. The driver is clear: fifty-three percent of FCMs cite legacy system dependence as their primary operational headache.
The timing reflects lingering scars from the 2020 COVID volatility spike, when record volumes exposed critical infrastructure weaknesses across the sell-side. Complicating the upgrade cycle, the vendor landscape has contracted sharply through consolidation, leaving brokers dependent on a shrinking pool dominated by FIS and ION Group. Currently, thirty-five percent of firms rely mainly on vendor platforms, fifteen percent use in-house systems, and half deploy hybrid models to balance costs while focusing resources on client acquisition.
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FXnCO Insight
** Expect pricing power to shift toward remaining post-trade technology vendors as FCMs compete for limited modernization capacity amid compressed timelines.
Source: Finance Magnates