UK gets share dealing system on the Web

Dresdner Kleinwort Benson (DrKB) has made Best Wins, its automated electronic dealing system, available to retail brokers over the Internet.

The system will give up-to-the-second trading prices to brokers dealing with large volumes of shares. Orders can be executed instantly and an order tracking facility is provided to monitor their progress.

David Summers, director and creator of Best Wins at DrKB, said: "We are already using an electronic trading system which provides these features, but that is a host to host connection. By putting it over Net lines, brokers all over the country can access it at the cost of local dial up call, so it is very cheap as well as being accurate."

He added that to put it over the Internet, DrKB had to ensure the service would have secure logon and encryption technologies.

Best Wins only takes large volume trades, unlike online brokers such as Charles Schwabb, E*Trade and Barclays. Summers said: "Charles Schwabb is one of our biggest customers. They deal with the individual investor and then their broker comes to us."

Robin Miles, IT project manager at DrKB, said: "The existing system is available free to those who carry large volumes of trades. Using the Internet means we can open up the dealing service to smaller brokers who can't trade in such large volumes. It also makes it easier to assess."

Summers exclusively told Silicon News: "This is the first part of a plan to roll out our Best Wins electronic trading system across Europe."