White-labelling now a reality

"We've moved from a situation where we talked about white-labelling to banks providing it and people wanting it. It's a reality," said Iain Doran, European head of e-commerce at JP Morgan Chase in London.

One measure of how far the industry has progressed was the presence of one white-labelling client on the panel – an unthought-of possibility one year ago.

Trinkaus & Burkhardt, a subsidiary of HSBC, selected the white-label platform from its parent company, and now trades about a third of its total FX volume through it.

Tim Becker, e-commerce product manager at the bank in Dusseldorf, said he had considered other banks' platforms as well as HSBC's, but ultimately opted for the parent system. "We are interested in a stable system and one that works properly. HSBC was the best," he said.

Despite clear progress in the white-labelling industry, however, the panellists agreed that it remains in its infancy.

"It's a small proportion of the market at the moment. It's not even made a dent yet – but it will be a growing dent," said Doran.

Technology specialists are more optimistic. "I see 100% participation in this market-place within two or three years – everyone in the top 200–300 banks will use some sort of white-labelling," said Brian Maccaba, chief executive officer of FX technology firm Cognotec.