Waypoint Trading Solutions launches Archon entitlement management system
Waypoint Trading Solutions, a business unit of TNS, has launched Archon, an enterprise-grade market data entitlement management system aimed at buy-side and sell-side firms seeking tighter control over data costs and exchange compliance obligations. The product went live on 17 September 2026 and is available for both single-firm and multi-customer deployments.
Archon consolidates entitlement tracking at both individual user and firm level, providing a centralised view of who holds access to which data sets. The system ships with an API designed for integration with existing trading platforms and a redesigned user interface the company says reduces operational friction for compliance teams. Firms acting as data vendors can use Archon to manage permissions across multiple downstream customers and applications from a single control plane.
What Archon adds to the Waypoint stack
Archon joins Waypoint's existing Data Usage Optimizer product, known as DUO, which generates reports identifying unused data feeds and candidates for subscription reduction. Together, the two products anchor what Waypoint describes as its Sentinel solution area, a fully managed market data service for complex trading operations. Waypoint's broader infrastructure portfolio also includes Radianz, its financial extranet connecting more than 800 exchanges, venues and service providers across more than 70 countries, and Xpress, a low-latency managed platform for high-performance exchange access.
Jeff Mezger, VP of Product Management at Waypoint Trading Solutions, said: "We continue to listen closely to our customers, both internal and external, and invest in developing products that deliver real ease of use and meaningful cost savings." Mezger added that Archon is "the first of several strategic product announcements" the company plans to make this year, signalling further product releases before the end of 2026.
Market context and competitive landscape
Market data entitlement management is a chronic pain point for financial institutions. Exchange fees for real-time data are substantial, and the contractual and audit obligations attached to those licences require firms to track, report and justify every permissioned user. Miscounted entitlements can result in significant back-billing from exchanges, and regulators in major jurisdictions expect firms to demonstrate adequate internal controls over data use.
The vendor landscape in this space ranges from large specialist providers to in-house-built systems maintained by tier-one banks. Consolidation pressure is real: as trading infrastructure becomes more commoditised, vendors are bundling entitlement management with connectivity and market data delivery to create stickier enterprise relationships. Waypoint's positioning, pairing Archon with an already-established 1,000-plus-institution connectivity network, is consistent with that bundling trend.
Regulatory read-across
Exchange compliance reporting requirements are distinct across jurisdictions but broadly require firms to submit periodic declarations of permissioned users and their data access rights. In the UK and EU, MiFID II frameworks impose additional obligations around data transparency and best execution, which are closely tied to which data sets a firm can demonstrate it was receiving and acting on. Automating exchange reporting, as Archon is designed to do, directly addresses the audit-trail requirements that compliance functions must satisfy ahead of regulatory reviews.
Waypoint has not disclosed pricing for Archon, named a launch customer, or indicated which specific exchanges the entitlement-tracking module is pre-configured to report to. Those details will be material for prospective buyers evaluating total cost of ownership against point solutions already in use.