NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Barclays today announced the launch of SPECS, an online client portal that allows clients to easily view, verify and request changes to their order handling settings with the firm’s Equities business. Accessible through Barclays’ institutional client portal, Barclays Live, the portal provides a consolidated view of a client’s settings in an easily accessible and easy to use format. Barclays is on-boarding clients to the platform starting this week.
“SPECS provides our clients with a consolidated overview of their order handling settings, across our business, and helps to create clearer accountability in the management of our clients’ orders,” said Eric Schlanger, Head of Equities, Americas. “The concept behind SPECS is surprisingly simple. But we believe the visibility and resulting control clients will have sets a new standard for transparency in the industry.”
With SPECS, clients can view, attest to or request changes to their specific profile directly in the online portal, with only a few clicks. A typical SPECS “profile” will include market access settings, settings for Barclays’ two ATSs (LX and DirectEx), and venue preferences. The portal will consolidate notifications, announcements of product updates, and alerts on any changes to their settings. Clients can also request a printable report of their profile settings.
“Our goal for SPECS is that it becomes a one-stop destination for the most up-to-date information on Barclays’ equities execution platform, across all our product lines,” said Joe Mecane, Managing Director, Electronic Equities and Credit Products. “The portal helps to simplify our clients’ work flow and gives clients increased transparency into their order handling. We are committed to being a leader in this area, providing visibility into how we handle our clients’ orders and disclosing in detail how we operate.”
Additional features planned for SPECS include product education videos, searchable FAQs, and important documents and disclosures. SPECS was conceived of, and built and designed by Barclays. The portal is currently available to Barclays’ US equities clients, and will be progressively rolled out to clients in other regions.
Barclays is an international financial services provider engaged in personal, corporate and investment banking, credit cards and wealth management with an extensive presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays’ purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way. With 325 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs over 130,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide. For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.
