Why Buy-Side Traders Still Refuse to Merge OMS and EMS in 2025

Wall Street's buy-side dinosaurs cling to their fragmented tech stacks like floppy disks at a blockchain conference.

Separate systems, same old bottlenecks

Traders keep OMS for order management and EMS for execution—despite fintech promises of unified platforms. Why? Legacy habits die harder than crypto bears in a bull market.

The compliance alibi

Fund managers cite 'regulatory requirements' while paying six figures in reconciliation fees. Meanwhile, quant shops eat their lunch with API-driven workflows.

Bonus jab: Maybe they're worried a combined system would reveal how often they actually beat the market.

Order management systems (OMS) and execution management systems (EMS) are the backbone of the buy-side’s trading infrastructure, enabling firms to manage their orders, execute trades and analyze their performance with precision and speed.

For decades, traders and systems providers have expressed a desire for “end-to-end” solutions that holistically manage the entire process. In recent years, some buy-side traders have opted for integrated platforms that combine order and execution management into a single OEMS system. Indeed, technology innovation and functional integration have started to blur the distinctions between the two, creating confusion among users about the differences among systems, which solution is best for them, and whether their current tech stack is still the right fit.

Nevertheless, a clear majority of buy-side traders taking part in a recent North American study by Crisil Coalition Greenwich prefer to use separate OMS and EMS, as opposed to a single, integrated platform. Those preferring separate OMS and EMS systems have a need for control, flexibility, and customization in their trading platforms.

“Consolidated platforms may offer convenience and potential cost savings, but the benefits of specialized systems seem to outweigh these advantages for now,” says Jesse Forster, Senior Analyst at Crisil Coalition Greenwich Market Structure & Technology and author of U.S. Equities OEMS 2025: The Buy-Side View.

For the most part, traders are not interested in the technical details of how platforms are built, but rather in the functional and practical aspects of their systems. In terms of specific features, buy-side traders prize performance, easy integration, speed, reliability, and seamless connectivity. Customer support and reliability, ease of customization, and ease of use and intuitiveness are also crucial.

Traders in the study remain wary of migrating to new systems due to the risks and resources required and tend to stick with familiar providers that have a proven track record. This tendency plays to the strengths of established brands like top OMS providers such as Charles River and Bloomberg’s AIM, and leading EMS providers like Bloomberg’s EMSX and Virtu’s Triton.

U.S. Equities OEMS 2025: The Buy-Side View analyzes buy-side perceptions and preferences on equity trading systems and provides advice for technology providers developing OMS and EMS products aimed at buy-side trading desks.

Source: Crisil Coalition Greenwich