24 Feb|2015

London/New York, 24 February 2015 - EBS, ICAP's market-leading electronic FX business, announces today that its growth in Commonwealth currencies will be further strengthened with the addition of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) as the first Canadian liquidity provider (LP) on the EBS Direct platform. This brings the total number of LPs on EBS Direct to 19.

Commonwealth currencies are now amongst the most actively traded currency pairs on EBS Direct. Furthermore, the number of active Liquidity Consumers (LC) trading Commonwealth currencies has more than doubled year-on-year. The addition of RBC as an LP will further bolster this growth and give customers access to a leading liquidity provider in both major and emerging market currencies. This will create greater liquidity, better pricing and higher certainty of execution in these instruments.

Mark Burroughs, Director at RBC, commented: "Working with EBS Direct will facilitate enhanced liquidity for our clients. The EBS Direct global distribution network allows us to support a wide client base with customised liquidity."

Jeff Ward, Global Head of EBS Direct, said: "As the first Canadian Bank to become an LP, RBC brings tremendous value to the platform, increasing footprint in major and emerging market currencies and supporting EBS growth. We are excited to begin this partnership with them and to leverage their valuable liquidity to enhance and diversify pricing provider options for our customers."

EBS maintains a strong investment in leading technology for all of its platforms. EBS Direct has recently undergone significant upgrades and continued technology enhancements are planned during the course of 2015 to further improve the trading experience for customers. Customer interest in EBS Direct remains strong with more than 100 new customers soon to be on-boarded, further strengthening liquidity on the platform.

Contacts

Bryony Scragg Communications UK +44 (0)20 7050 7124
Guy Taylor Communications US +1 212 341 9759
Candice Adam Argentus PR +44 (0)20 7397 2915

About EBS
ICAP's award-winning EBS business is at the heart of electronic spot FX trading and remains the core source of genuine, executable spot FX liquidity and independent benchmark pricing for professional trading counterparties in all market conditions. EBS's platforms deliver reliable, efficient and effective access to spot FX, precious metals and NDF traders globally, in both established and emerging markets, offering optimal price discovery and execution, and support a wide range of FX trading strategies, as well as API and manual trading.www.ebs.com.

About ICAP

ICAP is a leading markets operator and provider of post trade risk mitigation and information services. The Group matches buyers and sellers in the wholesale markets in interest rates, credit, commodities, FX, emerging markets and equity derivatives through voice and electronic networks. Through its post trade risk mitigation and information services ICAP helps customers manage and mitigate risks in their portfolios.www.icap.com.

About RBC Capital Markets

RBC Capital Markets is the corporate and investment banking arm of the Royal Bank of Canada, the 4th largest bank in North America by market capitalization. RBC Capital Markets is a premier investment bank that provides a focused set of products, services and expertise to corporations, institutional investors and governments around the world. With over 7,000 professionals in 16 countries, we deliver our products and services to clients in over 100 countries through operations across North America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific region.www.rbccm.com.

distributed by