The present invention provides automated methods and systems for
electronic order routing, and, more particularly, for selecting,
ordering, routing, confirming, and tracking orders for financial
instruments, such as mutual funds, among multiple buyers and sellers.
More specifically, the present invention provides end-to-end,
straight-through-transaction processing methods and systems for multiple
financial instruments combining order routing, execution, settlement,
foreign exchange, and custodial services to financial service providers
with a retail customer base. Further, the methods and systems may be
utilized to perform one or more of the following tasks: (1) monitor the
real-time status of a financial order at various stages; (2) accommodate
additional financial instruments and additional users as the system
expands; (3) facilitate lower transaction and processing costs; (4)
provide multilingual capabilities, settlement currencies, and other
identifiers necessary to quote and execute an order for a financial
instrument; (5) minimize the manual entry and re-keying of information
into multiple formats and templates used by brokers, fund managers, and
other parties to a financial transaction.The system components may
include a plurality of client terminals running an interactive user
interface, a network server, and at least one communications network. In
other possible embodiments of the present invention, the methods and
systems: (1) provide an archive capability for storing transactional
data, including order data; (2) provide detailed reports; (3) provide
integration with external and internal systems; (4) utilize
state-of-the-art technology; and/or (5) allow for real-time system
configuration and modifications.