Cogent Consulting Makes CSA “Cloud” System Available to Smaller Brokers

Cogent Consulting LLC of Summit, NJ, a privately-owned developer of commission management systems for Wall Street, today announced new pricing for its online CSA Trak™ BD “Cloud” service so smaller institutional brokerage firms can offer commission sharing arrangements (CSAs) to their clients.

Previously, Cogent only marketed “Cloud” packages for larger brokers with 100+ accounts, and medium-sized firms with 25+ accounts. Now, Cogent is offering smaller brokers all of the functionality of the CSA Trak BD “Cloud” system for five accounts, at a proportionately lower price.

“Our goal is to make the CSA Trak BD ‘Cloud’ an industry utility,” said Robin Hodgkins, President of Cogent. “We want to make it as easy, efficient and inexpensive as possible for any size broker dealer to offer CSAs and for any institutional investor to take advantage of them.”

Through CSAs (approved by the SEC in the US, the FSA in the UK, and regulators in Europe), investors can use commissions generated at one brokerage firm to pay for research provided by other brokers or research firms.

CSA Trak BD “Cloud” manages all aspects of a broker’s CSA relationships with clients, thereby streamlining operations, reducing costs and providing transparency. It accepts feeds from clearing firms, populates accounts with correct trade and commission data based on negotiated execution/research splits, handles all correspondence and compliance checklists needed in setting up new relationships, and generates broker-customized statements to clients. In addition, brokers can expand beyond five CSA accounts without having to install new software or convert their data or their client’s data.

For the buy side, CSA Trak BD “Cloud” functions like an online bank account. Clients can view their CSA balance with any broker on the “Cloud” as one aggregated amount or multiple individual amounts, and instruct how much each of its brokers or research providers should be paid.

About Cogent

Cogent Consulting LLC is the world leader in systems that enable brokers, research providers, investment advisors, and hedge funds to gain total control and complete transparency over their trading and research commissions. Money management and brokerage firms around the world use Cogent systems to automate broker review, voting and relationship management; commission reporting and reconciliation; commission sharing arrangements (CSAs) and client commission arrangements (CCAs); and unbundling of execution and research commissions.