The race to develop a cutting edge FX e-Commerce trading platform has meant technologists in this space have been highly sought after for some time now. However, with FX IT increasingly leaning towards algos and complex event processing (CEP), the sector faces challenges finding the right talent.

Fragmented markets and the need to access liquidity pools from a variety of sources simultaneously have been driving this investment in FX IT.

The new environment has “underlined the importance of developing next generation trading infrastructures through the implementation of low latency technologies amongst different FX players,” says Sang Lee, co-founder and Managing Partner at Aite Group.

The likes of Credit Suisse, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have all been hiring in this area recently, according to recruiters.

But, it’s no longer just about latency. According to a study by financial technology vendor Streambase, the use of algorithms within FX increased by 10% over the last 12 months and 60% of the 80 firms it surveyed were interested in using CEP in identifying trading opportunities, placing orders and price improvement.

This is beginning to filter down to techie recruitment requirements.

“Firms are increasingly asking for a combination of FX technology expertise and exposure to algo trading,” says Paul Bennie, director of financial IT headhunters Bennie MacLean. “The problem is that this blurs the line between pure technologists and quant developers, which means the tech teams often lose out on the right kind of people to the quant divisions.”

The result, he says, is that banks are often having to pay slightly over the odds for the right people. For a VP IT role within FX, base pay would usually come in at 80-90k, whereas those with algo exposure can command 110-120k.

One of the drivers for the move towards more complex trading platforms is the need to access new sources of liquidity quickly, suggests Richard Tibbetts, chief technology officer at Streambase.

“In 2003 you could have started from scratch with C++ but now there is just no time for that; CEP is just a better way to build today’s FX trading systems,” he says.