A public exchange between India’s leading brokerage & crypto exchange founders has sparked a wider discussion on the hidden complexity behind trading platforms, particularly the decision to build or outsource core trading infrastructure.

Nithin Kamath, Founder & CEO of Zerodha, recently highlighted that most stock brokers in India do not fully own their technology stack. Instead, they rely on third-party vendors for critical systems such as Order Management Systems (OMS) & Risk Management Systems (RMS), which form the backbone of any brokerage operation.

• OMS/RMS: The Heart of Brokerage Operations
• The High-Risk Nature of Building In-House
• CoinDCX Responds With a Crypto-Native Perspective
• The Broader Industry Question

OMS/RMS: The Heart of Brokerage Operations

Kamath described OMS/RMS platforms as the functional equivalent of core banking systems used by banks, typically supplied by large technology vendors. If these systems fail, trading operations effectively come to a standstill.

He noted that vendors such as Omnesys, 63 Moons, Kambala, & Rupeeseed dominate this segment, with Omnesys reportedly holding a significant share of the market. Because these systems sit at the center of every trade, risk check, & margin calculation, even brief disruptions can have cascading effects across the brokerage ecosystem.

One of the lesser-known things about stock brokers is that most brokers don't actually own their entire tech stack. There's usually a third-party vendor providing the core order management system (OMS) and risk management system (RMS). Think of OMS/RMS as being similar to the…— Nithin Kamath (@Nithin0dha) December 22, 2025

The High-Risk Nature of Building In-House

According to Kamath, Zerodha has been working for nearly four years to develop its own OMS/RMS stack internally. He described the process as extremely hard & operationally complex, especially for a broker with millions of active clients.

Migrating live client positions while ensuring uninterrupted trading introduces serious business risk. A single mistake during transition could result in incorrect trades, margin miscalculations, or clients being unable to exit positions at critical moments.

Regulatory volatility further compounds the challenge. Frequent rule changes must be integrated into the system without breaking existing functionality, turning each update into a potential failure point. Kamath likened the effort to “rebuilding a plane while flying it,” particularly for large brokers handling lakhs of daily trades.