The Exchange

For a while, the financial services distribution battle seemed to be about product providers feverishly buying up intermediary firms.

The Exchange and Trigold have extended the integration of their two trading platforms to enable Trigold users to link directly to The Exchanges quotation and transaction services on its Exweb portal.

Most of Marlborough Stirling will eventually be rebranded as Vertex but IFA portal the Exchange will keep its name following the completion today of a takeover by its new parent group United Utilities.

The Exchange has announced the integration of its comparative quotation and electronic application services with two new software platforms.

Mike O'Leary, chief executive of Marlborough Stirling, says intermediaries should see no hiving off of The Exchange as a result of today's bid announcement.

The Exchange will soon provide quotations on every type of product in the UK retail financial services sector as the portal has just announced plans to roll out a PMI comparative quotes service.

IFAs expect to be transacting around £3.2bn worth of consumer business electronically by 2009, suggests the latest survey by the Exchange.

Technology-based intermediaries offering life insurance suggest the Asian tsunami disaster on Boxing Day may have prompted fresh interest in protection cover from UK consumers.

The Exchange has managed to poach as its newest employees two former Misys employees responsible for developing IFA technology.

Trigold's Prospector AAA mortgage compliance software will soon be available through the Exweb IFA portal service thanks to a new deal between the Exchange and Trigold.