Richard Brunt, Head of GFI FENICS, comments on technology and new opportunities with FX options. View the e-Forex article >

New York, August 8, 2010 – GFI Group’s FENICS has appointed Julian Cook as Head of Quantitative Research.

In his expanded role, Mr. Cook will now be responsible for devising and executing GFI FENICS’ ongoing Maths Strategy. This will include proprietary models as well as the ongoing relationships with third-party model providers. Mr. Cook will also oversee bespoke projects for clients, ensuring that these meet GFI FENICS’ standards for performance, accuracy and transparency.

Richard Brunt, Global Head of GFI FENICS added, “Over the last few years, the size and the scope of the GFI FENICS product offering has increased dramatically with the introduction of enterprise server solutions, sales workflow functionality, and transactional capabilities. However, at the core of GFI FENICS product has always been its maths models. GFI FENICS has invested heavily in this area over the years and we continue to increase this budget to keep our models ahead of the market. The creation of this new role is a natural extension of this investment, to ensure that our models continue to be developed in a way that maintains our reputation for accuracy, openness and innovation, which helps maintain FENICS Professional™ as the market leading FXO system.” Brunt added, “Julian was the perfect candidate for this role. His experience within the GFI FENICS group and previously as a market practioner gives him unique insight that all GFI FENICS users can benefit from.”

Mr. Cook, who is based in New York, was previously Head of Development. He will report to John Molloy – Global Head of GFI FENICS Product. Mr. Cook, who has over 20 years experience in the derivatives business, began his career as a quantitative analyst and FX options trader at JP Morgan. He previously worked for GFI FENICS as a product specialist from 1994-1997 before rejoining the group as Head of Development in 2006. In between, Mr. Cook was Product Manager for FX options at FNX.

GFI FENICS has been providing leading FX derivatives software since 1987. Its products are licensed to over 350 institutions worldwide with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

GFI Group expands FX footprint in Israel

New York, May 24, 2010 – GFI Group (NASDAQ: "GFIG") announced today that Mizrahi Tefahot Bank of Israel has deployed FENICS Professional™ forpricing and risk management of its FX options business. Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, one of the leading banks in Israel in the field of FX trading, derivatives and options, has been a client of GFI FENICS^sm since 1998.

Mr. Doron Levy, Dealing Room Manager at Mizrahi Tefahot Bank of Israel said: "We highly value FENICS Professional for its robust functionality for pricing, calculation of non-linear risks, structured pricing functionality, and market data. It is a strong tool to support dealers’ portfolio management". Mr. Levy added, "We are very pleased with the new functionality that has been added to the system that is fully integrated with our back-office system. The new FENICS Enterprise module will allow our Middle Office to use FENICS Pricing via an Excel interface for internal purposes."

Richard Brunt, Head of FENICS at GFI Group commented: "The new release of FENICS Professional- version 12.1- will include functionality that has come directly from client feedback, such as the addition of sales term sheets, the ability to spread prices by counterparty and the tools to distribute retail structures directly to sales and branch networks. It is this scalability of FENICS Professional that continues to attract blue ribbon clients to the product."

The agreement includes a new commitment for 3 years.

GFI FENICS continues to expand its presence in the Israeli market where it enjoys a broad client base.

FENICS Professional is a suite of pricing, trading, risk management and STP (straight-through processing) components allowing customers to control, monitor and oversee every aspect of FX option trading and lifecycle management from one single interface.

GFI FENICS has been providing leading FX derivatives software since 1987. Its products are licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide - financial institutions and corporations - with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

New York, May 17, 2010 - Glory Sky Group, a leading Hong Kong brokerage house, has licensed FENICS Professional™, a pricing and risk management system for foreign exchange and commodity options from GFI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: "GFIG) to help manage its rapidly expanding FX and commodities derivatives business. 

The agreement includes FENICS Pricing, Analysis, Structuring Module and Exotic Maths components. FENICS Professional allows Glory Sky to expand its business scope in the FX and commodity option trading and client distribution spaces.

Alfred Yeung, Chairman of Glory Sky Group said, "To meet our expanding FX and commodities derivatives business we need a reliable solution, so we chose FENICS Professional. The FENICS Professional package enhances our pricing and risk management capability and also helps our real-time analysis for both vanilla and exotics options." Mr. Yeung added "GFI FENICS also provides an enterprise edition, FENICS Enterprise™, which will ultimately provide a seamless solution to distribute prices to all our clients, as we continue to expand our business."

"GFI is delighted to be working with Glory Sky Group and that they have chosen to deploy FENICS Professional in Hong Kong" said Owen Kam, Head of GFI FENICS Sales for North Asia. "We are looking to further expand our footprint in Hong Kong to more clients from different sectors, such as commodities and we continue to be committed to providing scalable and customized solutions to fit our clients" needs" he further commented.

Glory Sky Group is a leading brokerage house in Hong Kong, providing multi-asset class securities and investment services to clients including financial institutions, funds, corporate and individual investors.

FENICS Professional is a suite of pricing, trading, risk management and STP (straight-through processing) components allowing customers to control, monitor and oversee every aspect of FX option trading and lifecycle management from one single interface.

GFI FENICS has been providing leading FX derivatives software since 1987. Its products are licensed to over 350 institutions worldwide with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

About GFI Group Inc. www.GFIgroup.com
GFI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: "GFIG") is a leading provider of wholesale brokerage, electronic execution and trading support products for global financial markets. GFI Group Inc. provides brokerage services, market data, trading platform and analytics software products to institutional clients in markets for a range of credit (fixed income), financial, equity and commodity instruments.

Fenics Software Limited is a wholly owned subsidiary of GFI Group Inc.
Headquartered in New York, GFI was founded in 1987 and employs more than 1,700 people with additional offices in London, Paris, Hong Kong, Seoul, Tokyo, Singapore, Sydney, Cape Town, Santiago, Dubai, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Calgary, Englewood (NJ) and Sugar Land (TX). GFI Group Inc. provides services and products to over 2,400 institutional clients, including leading investment and commercial banks, corporations, insurance companies and hedge funds. Its brands include GFI SM, GFInet®, CreditMatch®, GFI ForexMatch®, EnergyMatch®, FENICS®, Starsupply®, Amerex®, and Trayport®.

New York, March 23, 2010 – GFI Group (NASDAQ: “GFIG”) announced today that Hyman Beck and Company , one of the world's most diversified alternative investment managers, has licensed FENICS Professional™ for the pricing and risk management of its FX options business.  The agreement includes FENICS Pricing, Analysis, and Structuring.

James Lubin, Principal and COO of Hyman Beck said: “We are very pleased to have chosen FENICS Professional as an enhancement to our existing risk management systems.  I was greatly impressed by the flexibility of FENICS reporting and the benefit it will deliver to the current risk control processes utilized in our FX options portfolio.  GFI FENICS^SM is a brand that has been industry-recognized for many years and the ease of deployment allowed us to be up and running quickly.”

Suzanne Poulin, Head of GFI FENICS Sales for the Americas commented: “GFI has been successful in adding new clients in the investment management sector and is very happy to welcome Hyman Beck and Co. FENICS Professional encompasses all of the tools needed to manage an FX options business efficiently.”

GFI FENICS has been providing leading FX derivatives software since 1987. Its products are licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide - financial institutions and corporations - with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

Swiss bank expands agreement with GFI leading FX pricing and analytics system

New York, February 22, 2010 – GFI Group announced today that Luzerner Kantonalbank is deploying FENICS Professional™ which enables the bank access to FENICS® Structuring and FENICS Enterprise™.

A GFI FENICS^SM client since 2006, Luzerner Kantonalbank is extending its agreement for a further 3 years and will continue to use FENICS Professional™ for FX options price discovery, portfolio management and automated downstream STP (straight-through processing) of the bank’s back office system for bank wide risk management.

Daniel W. Bommer, Director of Forex Derivatives at Luzerner Kantonalbank, said: “We have been working with FENICS® for a number of years and we are very pleased with the product. It is a powerful and reliable tool which supports our dealing portfolio management” and added, “In addition to the already proven high functionalities of the system, we are very pleased with the new functionality that we enjoy as part of the FENICS Professional™ agreement.”

Richard Brunt, Global Head of GFI FENICS^SM stated: “We are very happy Luzerner Kantonalbank has taken our relationship to the next level and invested in FENICS Professional™ as the system of choice to develop its expanding FX option business into the future” and added, “Our business continues to grow strongly in the Swiss kantonal banking area where we are attracting new clients and where existing clients are expanding their usage of FENICS®.”

Founded in 1850, the Luzerner Kantonalbank is a traditional full-service bank with all of its liabilities covered by a state guarantee.

FENICS Professional™ is a suite of pricing, trading, risk management and STP components allowing customers to control, monitor and oversee every aspect of FX option trading and lifecycle management from a single interface. FENICS Enterprise™ is a suite of server components, able to handle the entire lifecycle of FX derivative instruments. This open platform solution leverages clients’ existing infrastructure to deliver a variety of bespoke, mission critical, enterprise-wide solutions.

GFI FENICS has been the leading provider of FX derivatives software since 1987, with its products licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide, financial institutions and corporations, with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

Leading Japanese Bank deploys FENICS Professional
New York, January 25, 2010 – GFI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: “GFIG”) announced today that Mizuho Bank of Japan has deployed FENICS Professional, the market-leading FX system. The Bank has been a client of GFI FENICS since 2002.

Mr. Satoshi Ishii, Manager of Derivatives & Foreign Exchange Division said: “FENICS Professional has a large market share as a pricing tool of the FX options market and is a must for inter-bank trading. We are very pleased with the new functionality that has been added to the already proven high functionalities of the system.” “We highly value FENICS Professional for its robust functionality for pricing, calculation of non-linear risks, structured pricing functionality, and market data. It is a strong tool to support dealers’ portfolio management” he added.

Atsuo Kanazawa, Head of GFI FENICS in Japan stated: "The new release of GFI FENICS - FENICS 12.1- will include functionality that has come directly from client feedback, such as the addition of sales term sheets, the ability to spread prices by counterparty, and the tools to distribute retail structures directly to sales and branch networks. It is this scalability of FENICS Professional that continues to attract blue ribbon clients to the product.”

Richard Brunt, Global Head of GFI FENICS added, “Our business across the Asia-Pacific region continues to grow strongly as our existing clients across this part of the world continue to expand their usage and as we attract new customers through our innovative development.”

FENICS Professional is a suite of pricing, trading, risk management and STP (straight-through processing) components allowing customers to control, monitor and oversee every aspect of FX option trading and lifecycle management from one single interface.

GFI FENICS is licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide, financial institutions and corporations, with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.

Swiss Bank deploys GFI Group’s FENICS® Enterprise

New York, January 12, 2010 – GFI Group Inc. (NASDAQ: ‘GFIG’) announced today that Bank Julius Baer has deployed FENICS® Enterprise, the market-leading FX system.

An advanced suite of products launched in 2008, FENICS® Enterprise makes pricing of FX options and analyzing portfolios more efficient for the bank’s FX options teams across Singapore and Zurich. The robustness, flexibility and time to deployment offered by FENICS® Enterprise made the system the bank’s preferred choice.

“We are very pleased to strengthen our relationship with Julius Baer in Singapore and Zurich as they consolidate their systems globally.” said Elliott Hann, GFI FENICS^SM Head of Sales for Asia Pacific.

Richard Brunt, Global Head of GFI FENICS^SM added “We are delighted that Julius Baer has chosen FENICS® Enterprise as their system globally. Banks are continually looking to streamline their operations, empowering their sales people with cutting edge tools that allow them to price and analyze portfolios and run risk reports on the fly, with instant trade capture flowing back to their trading desk and back office systems”.

GFI FENICS^SM is licensed to over 350 client firms worldwide, financial institutions and corporations, with thousands of users benefiting from its solutions.