Clearing firm says the result is a better net for snagging affluent clients. Fidelity's clearing subsidiary National Financial says it has improved its Streetscape broker workstation by adding the portfolio- and book-management tools of Thomson Reuters' Thomson ONE to its intrinsic transaction capabilities. The point is to help broker-dealer hook top producers by helping them escape operational drudgery and concentrate on winning and keeping desirable clients.

"A firm's workstation is critical for broker-dealers looking to attract and retain top producers," says National Financial's executive v.p. Mark Healy. "Our new offering supports this effort by providing brokers with the advanced functionality they need to help free up time and focus on attracting, developing and retaining high-net-worth customers."

Less fiddling

Integrating Thomson ONE with Streetscape "creates a competitive advantage for broker-dealers and their brokers," according to John Fennelly, head of Thomson Reuters' wealth-management segment. "Brokers will now be able to gain insight into their various investor portfolios, research and evaluate individual securities across multiple content sets and submit orders all from one workstation."

The new system reduces clerical errors and improves overall workflow and trading efficiencies by automatically pre-populates and updates client-account information across applications.

Rather than merely introducing "another workstation for brokers" the integration of National Financial's Streetscape and Thomson Reuter's ONE facilitates "a new way of conducting business" says Healy. "By integrating Thomson ONE functionality into Streetscape, we have created a workstation tailored to the needs of brokers and their high-net-worth investors."

National Financial offers training and support to smooth the way to implementation for its 310 broker-dealer clients and their registered reps.

Late last year Boston-based Fidelity, National Financial's corporate parent, rolled out WealthCentral, its front-office technology for RIAs and other fiduciaries.

New York-based Thomson Reuters -- the result of Toronto-based Thomson's acquisition last year of London-based Reuters -- provides content and technology services to companies in the financial, legal, accounting, science and media industries around the world. Thomson ONE -- which comes with access to Thomson Reuters' market data, news, research, in addition to wealth-planning and investment-selection tools -- is on about 100,000 broker desktops in the U.S.

Boston-based National Financial custodied $488 billion in assets at the end of March 2009. -FWR

Purchase reproduction rights to this article.