Convergex Group, LLC

Convergex Group LLC was a provider of global agency brokerage and investment technology. A registered broker-dealer, it specialized in derivatives execution management technology and brokerage services for listed options and equities. Convergex was acquired in June 2017 by Cowen Inc., for $100.7 million and renamed Cowen Execution Services LLC and Convergex Limited. Its London-based brokerage was renamed Cowen Execution Services Limited.
== History ==
BNY Convergex Group was formed in October 2006 from the union of BNY Mellon Securities Group and Eze Castle Software. In November 2011, the BNY moniker was dropped, and the company became known as Convergex Group LLC.
From 2007-2011, the company made several key acquisitions, including options technology group LiquidPoint (2007), Cogent Consulting (2009), NorthPoint Trading Partners (2009), LDB Consulting and RealTick, a multi-broker, cross-asset provider of execution management systems which the company purchased in December of 2010 from Barclays Bank.
Convergex filed for a $400 million IPO in May 2011 and updated the filing in June 2011, but in June 2013 the company withdrew the filing, telling the SEC it had "determined not to proceed with the offering contemplated by the Registration Statement at this time." 
In January of 2013, Convergex Holdings signed an agreement to sell its RealTick and Eze Castle software platforms to an affiliate of private equity firm TPG Capital. 
In November 2015, ConvergEx announced it had entered into a clearing agreement with INTL FCStone Financial Inc. that will enable Convergex to offer its clients access to FCStone’s futures execution capabilities and prime brokerage platform, enabling ConvergEx to offer a prime brokerage services package geared toward smaller clients.
Convergex was bought by the Cowen Group for $100.7 million in April of 2017 ($53.1 million in cash and $47.6 million in Cowen common stock.) .
== Technology ==
On September 22, 2014 Convergex Group announced a new order routing strategy for U.S. equities that enabled institutional clients to earmark a percentage of an order to be sent to the IEX dark pool. The remainder of the order is sent to ConvergEx's Darkest algorithm for connectivity with more than 20 other dark pools. The firm said the move was a result of analysis of IEX execution that showed that buy-side client orders were protected from latency arbitrage and from adverse price impacts. ConvergeEx began routing customer orders to IEX in November 2013. 
Convergex operated an ATS called Millennium. The company's CEO, Eric Noll, said Convergex relaunched Millennium as a marketplace where orders can only be executed at the mid-point of the NBBO available on public stock exchanges. Convergex also offers a range of products and services, including: Global Sales, Electronic, and Portfolio Trading, Options Trading and Technologies, Commission Management, Prime Services, Clearing, Capital Markets, FIX Services, Independent Research Consulting, and Market Intelligence.
== Key People ==
* Eric W. Noll, President and CEO
* Philip Gough, CEO, Convergex Limited
* Douglas Nelson, Executive Managing Director, Head of Global Clearing and Prime Services
* Frederick Arnold, Chief Financial Officer
* Greg Voetsch, CEO of Convergex Execution Services
* Peter J. Coleman, Managing Director and Head of Trading
* Ben Londergan, Executive Managing Director and Head Of Options Trading, LiquidPoint
* Oliver Sung, Managing Director and Head of Electronic Execution
== References ==
Category:BNY ConvergEX
Category:Agency Brokers