Content area
Abstract
It is sometimes said modem banks are really technology companies in disguise because of how central their systems are to their operations. HSBC is no exception, and employs even more developers than Microsoft. The bank launched evolve, a unified global pricing and distribution system, in 2006, just as it became clear legacy pricing systems might begin to constrain or slow the volume of business it could transact in forex and precious metals. The system is now used for most forex and precious metals derivatives transactions, with only the most complex, illiquid or unusually large trades requiring manual intervention. Evolve is now used by more than 1,200 sales and distribution staff in 50 countries -- the widest deployment of a single front-office system within HSBC.