Wire House

Wire house

A firm operating a private wire to its own branch offices or to other firms, commission houses, or brokerage houses.

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wire house

A relatively large, multioffice brokerage firm that uses electronic communications to transmit customer orders for execution.

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Wire House

A company or other institution with multiple offices that are connected via an independent computer system. This allows for the easy and secure sharing of financial and other information. The term is usually used for banks and brokerages.

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Wire house. National brokerage firms with multiple branches were, in the past, linked by private telephone or other telecommunications networks that enabled them to transmit important news about the financial markets almost instantaneously.

Because of these lines, or wires, the firms became known as wire houses.

Although the Internet now makes it possible for all firms -- and even individual investors -- to have access to high-speed electronic data, the largest brokerage firms are still referred to as wire houses because of the technological edge they once enjoyed.