Dutch retail–focused multilateral trading facility (MTF) TOM has announced that ABN AMRO Clearing Bank is acquiring a 25% stake in its share capital.
Known as The Order Machine, the trading platform originated in 2009 as a joint venture between Dutch-based electronic market maker Optiver and partner BinckBank. The new investment means ABN AMRO gains the right to appoint a member to TOM's supervisory board. Currently acting as the clearing party for transactions carried out through TOM, ABN AMRO may also opt to route its order flow of equities and derivatives via TOM.
TOM consists of two elements: TOM MTF – the trading platform – and TOM Smart Execution, which aims to seek out the best price at which a retail order can be executed across a variety of trading platforms and routes the order accordingly.
Willem Meijer, CEO of TOM, said, “It has always been our intention to give third parties access to TOM, both as a member and/or as a shareholder. I am delighted that ABN AMRO will join TOM as a shareholder as it reflects their confidence in TOM's future. I believe this confidence also to be an important signal in the market.”
TOM expects to start trading Dutch equities on TOM MTF in the near future. Plans to extend its MTF licence to include trading in derivatives are also under consideration by the supervisory authorities. In the meantime, TOM is actively talking to other market players including banks, brokers and market makers.
Once TOM MTF is fully operational trading Dutch equities, cash equities clearing company EMCF will act as central counterparty, guaranteeing delivery and payment of equity trades.
ABN AMRO Bank, which mainly offers retail, private and commercial & merchant banking services in the Netherlands, completed its merger with Fortis Bank (Nederland) on 1 July.