Paul, you are a hugely experienced fintech professional. Please give us a little background on how your career has progressed so far.
My career has broadly followed three interconnected chapters: economic research and strategy, institutional trading and investment management, and, more recently, building technology businesses that solve structural challenges in financial markets.
I began as an economist at the Bank of England before moving into senior strategy and research roles at UBS and Citibank. As European Head of FX Research at Citi, I had the privilege of leading one of the industry’s leading research teams, helping institutional clients navigate increasingly complex global markets through rigorous analysis and actionable investment ideas. That experience reinforced something I’ve carried throughout my career: high-quality decisions are built on high-quality information.
From there I moved into investment management, becoming Global Head of FX at Deutsche Asset Management before launching the Discovery Macro Fund at Polar Capital. Those years moved me from analysing markets to making investment decisions and managing risk, highlighting just how fundamental reliable market data is.
Today, as CEO of New Change FX, I feel those experiences have come together. Our role is to provide independent market intelligence across the entire trading lifecycle, from execution and valuation to risk management, automation and AI-driven workflows.
New Change isn’t simply about producing market data. Our ambition is to build trusted market infrastructure that enables better decisions across both traditional FX and digital asset markets.
NCFX was established in 2012. What clear mission was it founded on and in what ways has that evolved as the FX markets have become increasingly electronic?
New Change FX was founded on a simple observation: market participants could only judge the quality of an FX trade if they had access to an independent and trustworthy view of where the market really was.
The idea came from our founders, Andy Woolmer and Toby Johnson, who were managing an FX fund-of-funds business. When they analysed the execution costs of the underlying managers, the answer depended on which market data source they used. The same trade could appear excellent or poor simply because the reference price changed.
That insight led to the creation of the NCFX Streaming Spot Benchmark and, ultimately, New Change FX itself.
While markets have evolved dramatically since then, the underlying challenge has remained remarkably consistent. The question is no longer whether information is available, but rather what information institutions can trust.
We have evolved from providing an independent FX benchmark into a provider of benchmark-quality market data and analytics across FX and digital asset markets. Today, our data supports trading, valuations, risk management, automation and an expanding range of institutional workflows.
Looking ahead, we believe automation, AI and the convergence of traditional finance and digital assets will only increase the importance of independent reference data.
NCFX supports a global institutional client base. What types of firms and institutions does this include?
NCFX supports institutions wherever trusted, independent pricing is critical to decision-making. Our clients include global and regional banks, central banks, asset managers, hedge funds, exchanges, clearing houses, trading platforms, software vendors, financial market infrastructure providers and organisations across digital assets and tokenized finance.
What unites them is the challenge they face. Whether executing trades, valuing portfolios, managing collateral, calculating risk, meeting regulatory obligations or building automated trading systems, they all rely on accurate, independent market data.
For readers less familiar with NCFX, please walk us through the key products and services it currently offers.
At its core, NCFX provides independent, benchmark-quality market data and analytics that help institutions make better decisions. We see the business not as a collection of data products but as a trusted benchmark layer, delivering market data and analytics across the entire trade lifecycle, from pricing and execution through to valuations, risk management, reporting and automated workflows.
Our flagship products include Forwards365® and NCFX Bank365®. Forwards365® delivers fully granular forward curves for every calendar day out to one year, eliminating the need for interpolation and providing greater accuracy for pricing, valuations, hedging and risk management. NCFX Bank365® builds on that capability by creating an independent market view of forward pricing from contributing Tier 1 banks.
We can also create hybrid curves allowing institutions to provide their own pricing inputs and receive back granular forward curves.
Alongside our forward products, we provide benchmark-quality spot pricing, NDFs, options benchmarks, precious metals data, crypto-derived 24×7 FX pricing and digital asset market data, complemented by a growing suite of analytics including Transaction Cost Analysis and pre-trade decision support.
Who are the key members of your senior executive team and what roles do they each play within the company?
One of New Change FX’s greatest strengths is the breadth of experience across our leadership team. We’ve deliberately built a team that combines expertise in global markets, data, technology, regulation, operations and commercial growth.
I joined as CEO in 2022, while our co-founder Andy Woolmer became a director and Chairman, continuing to have oversight of our long-term strategy. Our other co-founder, Toby Johnson, serves as Chief Data Officer, whose deep understanding of market structure has driven many of the innovations that differentiate NCFX today.
Our CFO, Will Beck, ensures we have the financial discipline and governance to support sustainable growth, while our CTO, James Anderson, formerly CTO of the Financial Conduct Authority, has transformed our technology platform into a modern, cloud-native infrastructure that delivers institutional-grade market data at scale.
Our COO, Ingrid Vogel, joined from Deutsche Börse and has strengthened our operating model. Kinga Broel-Plater joined as Chief Commercial Officer from Citi in 2023 and is leading the next phase of our commercial strategy, expanding partnerships and embedding NCFX’s data and analytics into the platforms and workflows where clients operate.
Independence and accuracy are cornerstones of benchmark data. How does NCFX ensure both?
Independence isn’t simply a feature of our business but rather the foundation on which everything we do is built. As more decisions are made by systems rather than individuals, confidence in the underlying data becomes critical. If the data isn’t trusted, neither are the decisions built upon it.
As a regulated Benchmark Administrator under the UK Benchmark Regulation, we operate independently of trading activity. We are not a market maker, broker or liquidity provider. Our responsibility is to represent the market as accurately, objectively and consistently as possible.
Every benchmark and dataset undergoes quality control, anomaly detection and consistency checking before being published. Our data is transparent, fully auditable and historically reconstructable, so clients can be confident not just about the price, but where it came from and how it was constructed. Ultimately, the value of market data should be measured by how much confidence you have in using it.
NCFX’s Transaction Cost Analysis tools are widely used. How are clients leveraging them to improve execution outcomes?
The role of Transaction Cost Analysis has evolved significantly. Historically, TCA was used as a post-trade reporting tool to demonstrate best execution and satisfy regulatory requirements. While those use cases remain important, clients are increasingly using TCA earlier in the decision-making process.
They use our analytics to assess prevailing market conditions, evaluate liquidity, compare execution strategies and optimise the timing of transactions. The objective is no longer simply to measure execution quality, but to improve it.
Firms increasingly want trusted analytics embedded directly into their trading workflows, rather than standalone post-trade reporting tools. By combining benchmark-quality pricing with granular forward curves, market analytics and execution data, we help clients move from retrospective analysis towards real-time decision support and automated execution.
The same independent data can then be used throughout the trade lifecycle for valuation, performance measurement, risk management and regulatory reporting.
NCFX recently launched NCFX Bank365®. Why is this such a leap forward?
NCFX Bank365® represents much more than a new dataset. It provides an independent market view of institutional forward pricing from the top-tier banks that establish the market price. This is a view that, until now, has been difficult to obtain.
Historically, participants in the FX forwards market have viewed pricing through the lens of liquidity curated for them or through curves that are constructed using crude interpolation between special dates. NCFX Bank365® brings together pricing from a select group of leading Tier 1 banks and, using NCFX’s independent methodologies, creates a trusted, representative view of the neutral market.
What differentiates NCFX Bank365® is the combination of independence, data input quality and granularity. We publish fully granular forward curves for every calendar day out to one year, rather than standard market tenors and special dates only. Our independence is equally important. As a regulated Benchmark Administrator, NCFX is not part of a trading venue or liquidity provider.
Banks gain an independent view of how their pricing compares with the broader market, while buy-side firms benefit from a trusted reference point for pricing, valuation, hedging and risk management.
We believe NCFX Bank365® is helping establish a new standard for independent forward market data.
To what extent have regulatory frameworks such as MiFID II influenced your business model and product design?
Regulatory frameworks such as MiFID II have been a major catalyst for the adoption of independent benchmark data. Requirements around best execution, transparency and auditability have increased demand for objective, verifiable pricing. NCFX was built with these principles in mind. Its data infrastructure incorporates timestamping, source tracking and historical reconstruction, enabling firms to demonstrate compliance and support internal decision-making. NCFX data also supports Independent Price Verification (IPV), providing an objective market reference to validate valuations and strengthen governance across risk and finance functions.
More broadly, regulation has driven a shift from relationship-based pricing toward data-driven validation and oversight.
How important has collaboration and partnerships been in helping NCFX innovate?
Collaboration has been fundamental to New Change FX’s growth. Many of our significant innovations have come from working with clients and partners to solve real-world market challenges.
The NCFX Bank365® family grew from conversations with clients seeking a more independent, granular view of the FX forwards market. NCFX Options Cut was developed in response to a client requirement to automate a previously manual options expiry process. Our 24×7 Fiat from Crypto reference rate was created in collaboration with partners looking to bridge traditional FX and digital asset markets.
What role are next-generation analytics and technologies like AI playing in shaping your data offerings?
Next-generation analytics and AI are central to both how NCFX data is used and how it is delivered. Clients are integrating NCFX benchmarks into machine learning models and algorithmic trading frameworks, where consistent, high-quality data is essential.
NCFX is investing in AI-driven interfaces and analytics tools to make its datasets more accessible. This includes enabling users to query complex market data through natural-language-style interactions.
As workflows become more automated, the combination of trusted benchmark data and intelligent analytics supports faster, more informed and more consistent decision-making across trading and risk functions.
Integration is everything in trading workflows. How do you go about developing products to fit as seamlessly as possible into existing systems?
Our philosophy is simple: technology should adapt to the client, not the other way around. Institutions have invested heavily in their trading, valuation and risk infrastructure, so our objective is to make integrating NCFX data as straightforward as possible. We support a range of delivery methods, including REST APIs, FIX, WebSocket and cloud-based services, allowing clients to consume our data in the way that best suits their existing environment, whether accessed directly or through technology partners.
Ultimately, our goal is to make trusted, benchmark-quality market data available wherever decisions are being made.
In a landscape increasingly crowded with data providers, how would you summarise the clearest differentiators for NCFX?
Our greatest differentiator is the trust we’ve built across the market. As a regulated Benchmark Administrator, our sole focus is to produce independent, benchmark-quality market data with the highest standards of governance, transparency and integrity.
That trust extends beyond the data we publish. Our clients and partners contribute proprietary pricing and market data, knowing it will be stewarded responsibly and transformed into fit-for-purpose datasets, calculations and analytics. That’s a very different proposition from simply distributing data.
We see ourselves as part of the market infrastructure rather than just another data vendor, providing the trusted benchmark layer that underpins trading, valuation, risk management and automated workflows.
What market forces are influencing your product development roadmap and growth priorities?
Markets are becoming more electronic, automated and interconnected, while institutions place greater emphasis on independent data for pricing, valuation, risk management and governance. Demand is also growing for more granular data, particularly in forwards, options and less liquid markets. Clients increasingly want data and calculations embedded directly into their systems, rather than delivered as standalone feeds. The convergence of traditional finance and digital asset markets is another driver. As tokenization, stablecoins and on-chain applications develop, the need for trusted, auditable FX and crypto reference data will continue to grow.
These trends are guiding us to expand our data coverage, strengthen our calculation and analytics capabilities, and deepen partnerships with banks, platforms and market infrastructure providers. Our priority is to build benchmark-quality products that solve real client problems.
From your vantage point, how much work still needs to be done to take transparency in FX to the next level?
While the industry has made meaningful progress, significant gaps remain, particularly in forwards markets, options pricing and less liquid currency pairs.
Consistently using inaccurate data will embed trading inefficiencies even if they are hidden by the “mark your own homework” approach.
A key challenge remains achieving consistency across the trade lifecycle. While post-trade analysis has improved, transparency is still needed in pre-trade decision-making and real-time execution.
NCFX provides the independent, benchmark-quality data that enables this transition.
By delivering consistent, auditable pricing and intelligence across instruments and workflows, we help create a more transparent and accountable FX market.
