Having signed as a client on Cobalt's platform in February, Standard Chartered joins Citi as an investor in the firm.

Cobalt creates a single version of an FX trade and checks credit in real-time, cutting operational costs and reducing credit, settlement and operational risk. Its technology services interbank, prime, buy-side and bank-to-client relationships.

Credit is currently over-allocated in the FX market and represents significant systemic risk. Cobalt allows for dynamic credit allocation across clients and counterparties to allow full compliance with the FX Global Code. It brings new technology into post-trade, delivering a high availability, high throughput platform which enables full automation of the trade lifecycle, without the need for additional downstream reconciliation.

Gareth James, Macro COO from Standard Chartered: "We see Cobalt as being a core part of our FX operating platform, enabling Standard Chartered to reduce risk and costs by automating manual processes across the bank and therefore improving services to our clients. This investment shows our confidence in the platform and we look forward to continuing to grow our relationship with Cobalt."

Darren Coote, CEO at Cobalt: "The past few months have been a tumultuous time for the financial markets with market participants realising quickly that their current infrastructures were not fit for the new normal. During this period Cobalt's solutions have continued to allow our network to operate at ease as well as reducing their all-important operating costs. We welcome Standard Chartered as our latest client investor and look forward to continuing to work with them in this new capacity, to both improve our services and extend our offering, with a particular focus on the emerging markets."