Halifax launches trading system

UK high-street bank Halifax has announced the launch of ShareXpress, a share dealing service that targets retail customers.

The service builds on technology that the bank installed to handle share deals for its own customers during its conversion from a building society in 1997.

Halifax built on its direct banking call centre in Leeds and bought a trading system from TCA Synergo, called Tarot, to assist its five million new shareholders. Now the bank has extended the system to cover general share trading.

Steve Wise, project manager at TCA Synergo, said: "The unique thing about the Halifax is that they don't have any of the baggage of a normal stockbroker. The processes that most stockbrokers do manually, Halifax can do electronically."

"Call centre staff have all the client's information in front of them by the time they answer the phone," said Wise. "They can then execute an entire trade for the client immediately, without passing the order to a dealer and waiting for a reply."

Neither company would reveal how much the Tarot system cost Halifax, but Wise commented: "They've invested heavily in this service and I think they'll do very well for themselves."