TP Icap saw a bounce in trading at the start of the pandemic
The huge shift in culture towards working from home has resulted in traders have less appetite for risk.
That is the view of TP Icap, one of the world’s largest brokers, as reported by The Times.
The company, which facilitates transactions in financial markets, said that its clients had been more cautious during the pandemic.
Senior staff at TP Icap said some traders were more hesitant towards specific trades, citing internet connections which could impact the audit trails for deals.
“You’re at risk in anything that’s high velocity of there being a breakdown,” Robin Stewart, TP Icap’s finance chief, said. “You could misreport it because your internet might go down.”
There have been murmurs among banks over putting in place tighter risk limits due to the challenges of monitoring traders’ activities when they are working remotely.
The reduced risk-taking led to a quieter period for markets over the first half of 2021.
TP Icap saw a bounce at the start of the pandemic, when trading activity boomed high volatility. However, more recently it has been held back as calmer conditions returned.
The broker’s share price fell by 21p, or 10.7%, after it said that its full-year operating margin was likely to fall year-on-year due to lower revenues and sterling’s strength against the dollar.