A major factor of the acquisition is a commitment to significant investment in R&D, aimed at enhancing the line of existing RCP products and delivering new services to clients, such as risk management and automation of post-trade manual processes. RCP and B2 Hub have been working together for 9 months, enabling RCP to provide the FX market with the level of STP service long taken for granted in the Funds and Payments space. The collaboration clearly demonstrated the business rationale and the benefits of an acquisition. The period of joint working has already resulted in a recently completed
new product build, which will be launched later this month.

This acquisition includes RCP’s whole business and, as the companies’ areas of expertise integrate so well without overlapping, both companies’ teams will continue largely unchanged. Paul Burgess, previously head of strategy at RCP has now been appointed as the CEO of RCP. Burgess says: “It makes good commercial sense to form the new company. The combined expertise and product range offer tremendous and immediate benefits to our clients and are quickly delivering increased efficiencies and cost reductions especially to the many legacy functions in deal confirmations and settlements. 

Our combined products are proving very popular with the FX market and we plan an increase in staffing and investment by 30% during the year, primarily in the R&D, sales and support functions.” Phil Boland, Group Chief Executive of B2, said: “The two companies have been working in partnership since the middle of last year. The partnership proved so successful that we decided that it was in the interests of both companies and the combined client base for us to take it a step further. We have a long history of innovation and value added applications, primarily in the areas of Investment Funds, Payments and FX and our state-of–the art messaging hub in Luxembourg is well suited to providing significant additional services to RCP clients.”

Overall, RCP will gain access to B2 Hub’s client base in Dublin, continental Europe, North Eastern America and the UK, whilst B2 Hub will be able to offer secure outsourced solutions to RCP’s established client base in the Far Eastern, Middle Eastern and African markets, where RCP also has an established client base, and is gaining further momentum quickly. The new company’s offices will be in Luxembourg and London with representation in the Middle-East; its technology and support services are available in most major European languages as well as Arabic.

The B2 Hub STP messaging platform in Luxembourg will continue to be fully regulated.