Trading from anywhere: empowering Sucden Financial with a unified mobile experience

Sucden Financial, a leading multi-asset execution, clearing, and liquidity provider, has a long-standing history in the financial services sector. Sucden was familiar with the growing demand for trading platforms—its Trading and Risk Platform (STAR) had been serving clients and internal teams since 2001—but the firm needed to adapt to the changing needs of its clients by expanding its service offering to include a mobile trading application. That meant finding the right partner to help navigate the mobile technology landscape and help Sucden Financial create a seamless mobile experience that would integrate with its existing STAR platform. 

The ideal solution would empower Sucden Financial’s clients to access market data, order book, trades, positions and enter orders from their Android or iOS mobile device—this cross-platform mobile compatibility would increase user adoption and revenue by providing a unified trading experience across existing desktop devices and the newly supported mobile platforms. 

We collaborated with Sucden Financial to develop a platform-agnostic mobile application with a microservices architecture. This approach ensured flexibility and scalability, which allowed for future growth and expansion. The application was implemented in Java with a React Native mobile application, integrating seamlessly with Sucden’s existing STAR platform. The platform was deployed on the Azure Kubernetes Service, allowing for redundancy and dynamic scaling.  

Our UX design team worked closely with Sucden Financial’s in-house end users to guarantee a familiar and intuitive user interface. We incorporated their feedback throughout the development process—this collaborative approach delivered a product that aligned perfectly with the wants and needs of the target audience. 

In June 2021, STAR Mobile was successfully launched on iOS and Android—a significant milestone for Sucden Financial. The mobile app has been well-received, with approximately 30% of STAR users having a mobile login. The increased accessibility and flexibility have led to higher user adoption and revenue, while the intuitive interface has enhanced the overall trading experience. 

Outcomes

• Developed a platform-agnostic mobile trading application using Java and React Native 
• Implemented a microservices architecture for flexibility and scalability 
• Integrated the mobile app with Sucden Financial’s STAR platform for a unified trading experience 
• Deployed the platform on Azure Kubernetes Service for redundancy and dynamic scaling 
• Designed a bespoke mobile application with a user-centric approach, incorporating feedback from Sucden Financial’s in-house users 
• Successfully launched STAR Mobile on iOS and Android, increasing user adoption and revenue