Merrill Lynch has signed a contract for trading systems valued up to $100m (€68.1m) with a new provider, forsaking its 20-year relationship with UK telecoms company BT. The US bank was BT's longest-standing client in New York.

Merrill Lynch has signed a deal with IPC for 4,000 of the US vendor's trading systems, to be deployed on the investment bank's main trading floors in New York and London, as well as other execution desks globally.