OpenFin, a provider of HTML5 technologies for the financial industry, today announced the launch of OpenFin Desktop. The new technology empowers financial services firms to deploy high-performance, interactive trading applications using HTML5.
HTML5 is displacing technologies such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight that have been widely used to develop many trading applications. The financial industry is at a crossroads, however, as the majority of financial industry desktops don’t run a modern web browser that adequately supports the HTML5 standard. More critically, trading applications often require functionality that is impossible to achieve within the constraints of even modern browsers.
“HTML5 creates exciting new possibilities for trading application design and deployment. We developed OpenFin to unlock this potential and to help the financial industry accelerate its HTML5 adoption,” said OpenFin CEO, Mazy Dar.
OpenFin Desktop enables HTML5 applications to run outside the browser with the performance, functionality and security needed for real-time trading. Application providers can use the software to deploy a single application or, alternatively, to provide customers with a branded desktop app store.
The new product also helps financial services firms migrate to HTML5, avoiding the need to rewrite existing applications. OpenFin Desktop can run Flash and Silverlight applications and integrates seamlessly with Java, C++ and .NET through an API. The software is built on Chromium, an open-source project from Google that also powers the Google Chrome browser.
“Trading applications have unique requirements for performance, user experience, security and scalability. OpenFin enables developers to meet and exceed these requirements building with HTML5,” said OpenFin president and COO, Chuck Doerr.
OpenFin brings together a team of financial industry veterans who pioneered electronic trading for over-the-counter markets, deploying real-time internet applications to major dealers and over 500 buy-side firms. The company was founded in August 2010 and is backed by senior executives and entrepreneurs from across the financial industry.
