Perhaps it was always going to be a natural evolution of outsourcing, but the pandemic truly sparked a wave of outsourcing among trading desks. But is outsourcing the correct terminology?

More and more desks are turning to supplemental trading services – co-sourcing, let’s call it – to support an asset class or a region, something pertinent with the imminent arrival of T+1 in the US. Because of this trend, we are also seeing bigger players take an interest in what has traditionally been seen as a concept taken up by smaller funds.