In March this year the Bermuda Stock Exchange (BSX) deployed a new central securities depository system in record time. The settlement and depository system platform was provided by Vermiculus Financial Technology, which was only founded in 2020.

The Swedish financial technology provider was launched by a group of former leaders from Cinnober Financial Technology, which had been sold to Nasdaq, as they believed there was a gap in the market for independent providers of best in class technology.

The deployment of the Bermuda exchange’s new CSD is the result of a relationship that began during the pandemic. BSX is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Miami International Holdings (MIH). Taraneh Derayati, chief executive of Vermiculus, told Markets Media that MIH contacted the firm during the pandemic because they needed a replacement for the clearing platform of another subsidiary, Minneapolis Grain Exchange (MGEX) – now MIAX Futures Exchange.

At the start of her career Derayati wrote her masters thesis at Cinnober Financial Technology, and she was head of sales, business development and client account management before the acquisition by Nasdaq. She continued as vice president at Nasdaq Market Technology division where she led a project to replace the infrastructure with a new real-time clearing system before becoming chief executive of Vermiculus in June 2020.

“We went through a design study and MIH looked at every angle of our solution, and became the first customer for our new clearing system,“ she said.

In June 2023 MGEX launched the VeriClear clearing platform and Vermiculus said in a statement this was a record time to market due to its cloud-native microservices approach. Microservices break a problem into small components of functionality, while ensuring that the data they use is consistent in real-time. Firms can stop using monolithic architecture which is difficult and expensive to change without building a new version of the whole application.

MGEX Clearing was delivered in less than 15 months from signing according to Derayati. Cloud-native VeriClear enables clearing houses to monitor and manage positions and risk in real-time across various markets, including over-the-counter and exchange-traded platforms. The platform has modern APIs, artificial intelligence components for operational efficiency and a modern user interface that Derayati describes as very easy to use.

Douglas Schafer Jr., chief information officer at MIH, said in a statement at the time: “Vermiculus has developed a powerful next generation clearing system, allowing MGEX to operate a versatile platform that provides the power and flexibility we need to deliver best-in-class services for our customers.”

Derayati continued that MIH were very happy and Vermiculus continued to add more functions to MGEs. She added: “We have taken the modular design of our system architecture to a new level.”

As a result, MIH asked Vermiculus to build a new CSD clearing platform for BSX.

“We replaced the whole BSX CSD system in a record time of 9 to 10 months, and we have been overwhelmed by the positive feedback from the exchange and its members,” added Derayati.

Vermiculus said the CSD system’s microservice-based architecture ensures seamless integration with the BSX trading system to process trades, manage position during settlement, and facilitate ownership changes. BSX can now handle huge volumes, has modern collateral management functions and a streamlined settlement process.

“BSX has big ambitions to create new value for the market,” added  Derayati. “The system gives them so much flexibility that they are ready to respond to all the upcoming requests.”

Delivering projects

Derayati describes Vermiculus as having “very good” technology but argued that important parts of the firm’s success are the team and how it delivers projects. Vermiculus has one dedicated cross-functional team for each customer, including people who have worked in exchanges and clearing houses and understand the business side.

“The team has 100% focus on one customer, which we have found is the only way for us to deliver what we promise in quality and on time,” she added.

The initial design study lasts for a couple of weeks and sets the scope for what the project will deliver “from 10,000 feet”, so Vermiculus can give the customer a fixed price and a fixed timeline. Derayati said: “This is an important differentiator and we keep our promises.”

During the design study, the team also prepares for the first sprints, which take a little bit of the high level scope and makes it detailed for the developers. After the first sprint, which could be four or five weeks, the system is  delivered to the customer for testing, and Derayati said clients very much appreciate being shown something so early.”

Any feedback is answered quickly and there is rigorous testing of every single line of code. Derayati gave the example that if a project has seven sprints, then by the end, the system has been tested many millions of times.

“The customer has seen the system, understands the system and there has been a good knowledge transfer throughout the project,” she said. “They get exactly what they want at the end of the project, and they appreciate knowing the system very well.”

Brazil

Brazilian investment fund  L4 Venture Builder took a minority stake in Vermiculus in March 2023 , which included funding of $5.5m million to accelerate growth.

In December 2024 Brazilian marketplace operator B3 deployed the initial phase of its new cloud-native CSD system which is based on Vermiculus’ microservice-based VeriSafe product. Vermiculus said B3 will be able to prepare for growth in the Brazilian market, e.g., a ten-fold increase in capacity, support extended opening hours and add new functionality such as new reports for its market participants.

Viviane Basso, B3’s chief operating officer – issuers, depository and OTC at B3, said in a statement: “By taking a gradual, soft-launch approach, we’ve ensured a seamless transition while maintaining stability and continuity for all users.”

B3 and Vermiculus are working on the second phase of the CSD project.

“We delivered the first phase of the CSD for B3, which is a huge project,” said Derayati. “They are very happy and the next phase will soon go into production.”

Vermiculus is in discussions with other exchanges about its CSD platform, according to Derayati.

“The demand for our products has been huge and we are in our best position ever,” Derayati added. “We see this as confirmation of the choice of our technology stack and how we build the system, our people and culture.”

Trading platform

In September 2024 Vermiculus announced the launch of its next-generation ultra-low latency trading platform, which has been engineered to adapt to diverse regulatory frameworks while managing increasing trading volumes and complex order types, and to support 24/7 operations across all asset classes.

VeriTrade boosts performance but also guarantees a consistent and predictable order matching process and Vermiculus is in discussions with one of the largest exchanges according to Derayati. The system is designed to ensure deterministic order matching with single-digit microsecond response times, which offers a competitive edge in high-frequency trading environments.

She said: “Trading is in our veins and we have many people that have built systems for exchanges – if there are 10 people that are the best in the exchange system development, we have nine of them.”

In February 2025 Vermiculus expanded its trading team with Johan Noren and David Antman, who have  delivered  trading systems for exchanges including Hong Kong, Japan and Singapore.

“Our systems cover the entire chain of a transaction from entering orders, to  clearing, risk management and settlement across all asset classes,” added Derayati.

She continued that the firm increased employees by around 50% last year, and has been profitable since launch with a very strong cash flow and cash balance.

“We are also unique in how we finance ourselves as we take all the costs upfront,” she said.