63 moons lures brokers with 50% discount as NSE shuts NOW

After the National Stock Exchange (NSE) said it was shutting down its ‘free’ internet trading platform NOW, tech company 63 moons technologies said it will offer a 50 per cent discount to brokers on its trading software. The move was reminiscent of the old days of fierce competition between the NSE and Financial Technologies (former name of 63 moons).

Financial Technologies rose on the back of huge revenues from sale of trading software to brokers between 2000 to 2008. It went on to launch two exchanges, MCX and MCX SX. In 2008, the NSE launched its online trading platform NOW and offered it free of cost to brokers to connect to the exchange. The NSE also purchased a stake in Omnesys that provided trading solutions. It undercut FT’s ODIN software which had a monopoly till then.

However, on Monday, the NSE said that it felt the time had come for the exchange to step back from offering trading solutions to brokers since most in the markets had developed their own technology. Still, Omnesys, which was bought over by Thomson Reuters, BSE’s software BSE-on-web and ODIN provide market access software to brokers.

There are more than 800 brokers on the NSE and around 1,200 on the BSE. Brokers catering to the retail category still depend on software vendors, while large institutional brokers have developed their own technology.

“63 moons technologies has decided to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with brokerages, in this time of Covid-19 crisis which has got further compounded due to the NSE deciding to shut its trading software NOW. We have decided to provide a 50 per cent discount on pricing and technological support to enable smooth transition of trading terminals from the NSE’s NOW and to ensure business continuity in this hour of crisis.”

Vendors charge brokers a few thousand rupees as cost for providing trading solutions software for each of their terminals.