National Bank Financial Picks NovaSparks to Power Its Equity and ETF Market Making Desk

National Bank Financial Completes the Deployment of NovaSparks FPGA Matrix Technology for North American Equity and Futures Data Feeds


NEW YORK, Nov. 4, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NovaSparks™, an FPGA market data company, announces that the NovaSparks pure FPGA technology has been selected by National Bank Financial (NBF) to power its equity and ETF market making desk.

NovaSparks' pure FPGA market data feed-handler solutions offers 'wire to memory' deterministic latencies of 1.4 microseconds while building a full depth book. This number was recently measured and audited by the Securities Technology Analysis Center (STAC), an independent technology-research firm. It includes all the tasks to receive, build and maintain a full depth of book starting at the time the first byte of the packet is received by the system to the time the output data is available for consumption by user applications in the server memory.

"Integrating the NovaSparks technology in our trading architecture has allowed us to benefit from the ultra-low latency and determinism that only a pure FPGA solution can deliver," says Etienne Dubuc, Head of Equity Derivatives Trading at NBF. "NovaSparks solutions come with scalability, flexibility and innovation," added Dubuc.

"We are extremely proud to have been selected by National Bank Financial," says Yves Charles, CEO of NovaSparks. "This extensive deployment demonstrates that customers have access to solutions that are both fast and scalable across asset classes," concludes Charles.

NBF is a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Bank of Canada, among the 20 strongest banks in the world, according to Bloomberg Markets magazine, and recognized as a market leader in Canadian ETF and equity options trading.

Based on a pure FPGA matrix architecture, NovaSparks offers deterministic microsecond speeds for all major equity and futures exchanges around the world, one to two orders of magnitude faster in the high percentiles than traditional software solutions.

About NovaSparks, Inc

NovaSparks, inventor of the FPGA Market Data Matrix™ architecture, is an engineering company dedicated to FPGA solutions for Capital Markets. Taking a unique 'FPGA- centric' design approach, NovaSparks is the first company to design and commercialize a set of 27 pure FPGA Full Book Feed Handlers offering deterministic, nanosecond processing speeds. Available for major Equity and Futures venues across Europe and North America, the Feed Handlers are packaged in 'easy-to-deploy' appliances and can be chained together to seamlessly scale.  Founded in 2008 and backed by Partech International, NovaSparks' executive management team is based in Paris France, Boston MA USA and New York. www.novasparks.com

About National Bank Financial

With $80 billion in assets under administration, National Bank Financial is a fully-integrated investment dealer combining retail advisory and brokerage services with institutional brokerage, investment banking, corporate finance, and securities clearing for third parties. National Bank Financial offers its services to more than 400,000 clients. Its Financial Markets division has a major presence in Toronto, Calgary, Vancouver and Montreal, as well as operations in the United States and Europe.