Options, the provider of the Options PIPE Private Financial Cloud services platform for the exchange, banking, trading and investment communities, is to open an office in Chicago next month.  

Scheduled to open on 1 March, Options' Chicago office will enable the firm to better serve the growing number of regional clients, as well as to communicate with proprietary trade firms in the area.

Options has had a presence in the Chicago area since 2007 when it began offering co-location services at the Cermak datacenter facility.  

The Chicago office will expand Options' presence in major global financial markets which include New York, London and Hong Kong. Today, Options has 130 clients and 80 employees worldwide. The company's growth in the US market has been largely attributed to the Volker rule and other regulatory requirements facing financial services firms, growing familiarity and comfort with the cloud model, and increasing cost-consciousness by both buy-side and sell-side firms.

"Options' continued expansion is the result of a focused business strategy of providing our clients with the closest proximity and lowest latency access to the markets in which they are executing their trading strategies," says chief executive Nigel Kneafsey (pictured). "With the opening of the Chicago office, the recently launched rebranding initiative and other business-generating activities planned for this year, Options is better poised to achieve strong growth in 2013."