Pohjola Asset Management and ITG Announce New Smart Routing and Algorithmic Trading Service

LONDON and HELSINKI, Nov. 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Investment Technology Group (ITG), Inc. (NYSE: ITG), a leading agency research broker and financial technology firm, and Pohjola Asset Management (PAM), Finland's leading fund manager, today announced the launch of a Smart Routing and Algorithmic Trading Service.

The product is a result of the collaboration between the two companies which sought to create a low cost, highly efficient execution facility that delivers dramatically improved trading performance. This superior new offering will also be made available to third party institutional traders.

The project, which combined PAM's execution know-how and ITG's market-leading infrastructure, involved considerable research and development commitments from both parties. It also required ITG to undertake the creation of an ultra-low latency data centre in Stockholm and the re-construction of order routing and connectivity software.

Commenting on the new offering, Simo Puhakka, Head of Trading at Pohjola Asset Management, said "The origin of this offering was our desire to reduce slippage costs when trading equities for our funds. We thought that it must be possible to create better Smart Routers and Algorithms for buy-side traders, so we made a decision to build our own buy–side controlled SOR (Smart Order Router) with ITG. Our SOR has given us significantly better performance on implementation shortfall costs compared to the ones we have used before. It quickly became apparent that there is demand for this performance level from other institutional traders, so we decided to set up a separate entity Pohjola Asset Management Execution Services Ltd ("PAMES") to market and further develop the platform. The buy-side SOR is now offered to institutional traders and asset managers by PAMES, which is 100% owned by PAM. I'm pleased to announce that the first third-party client has gone live."

Commenting on the 12 month period of research and development, Rob Boardman, CEO of ITG in Europe, said: "ITG was happy to accept the challenge, although at the outset it wasn't clear what would be the full extent of the possibilities by combining PAM's execution know-how and ITG's infrastructure. To achieve the required performance we found it necessary to build a new ultra-low latency data center and re-construct our order routing and connectivity software. The new infrastructure combined with PAM's customized routing logic and analysis has produced significant advances in benchmark performance for PAM."

About Pohjola Asset Management Ltd

Pohjola Asset Management Ltd is part of Pohjola Group and responsible for asset management services for OP-Pohjola Group's major institutional and private clients. Its 153 asset management experts manage assets worth over EUR 31 billion. The company is the leading asset manager for Finnish institutions and wealthy private individuals and families. Furthermore, the portfolio management of OP Fund Management Company's mutual funds is mainly centralized in Pohjola Asset Management. For more information on Pohjola Bank plc and Pohjola Asset Management Ltd please visit www.pohjola.com.

Pohjola Asset Management was advised by Keith Wright of Markley Services.

Pohjola Asset Management Execution Services Ltd is tied agent company for Investment Technology Group Ltd (ITG).

About ITG

Investment Technology Group, Inc., is an independent agency research broker that partners with asset managers globally to improve performance throughout the investment process. A leader in electronic trading since launching the POSIT® crossing network in 1987, ITG takes a consultative approach in delivering the highest quality institutional liquidity, execution services, analytical tools, and proprietary research insights grounded in data. Asset managers rely on ITG's independence, experience, and intellectual capital to help mitigate risk, improve performance, and navigate increasingly complex markets. The firm is headquartered in New York with offices in North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific region. For more information on ITG, please visit www.itg.com.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:

Pohjola Asset Management Execution Services Ltd

Simo Puhakka Chief Executive Officer  
Pohjola Asset Management Execution Services Ltd  
+358 (0) 10 252 4272  
[email protected]  

Carina Geber-Teir  
Chief Communications Officer, Pohjola Bank Plc  
+358 (0)10 252 8394  
[email protected]

ITG

Charlie Prichard, MHP Communications  
+44 20 3128 8554  
[email protected]

J.T. Farley, ITG  
+1 212 444 6259  
[email protected]

SOURCE ITG