SWX Europe, a London-based equities trading venue owned by SWX Swiss Exchange, has signed up eleven brokers to its non-displayed liquidity service for Swiss equities.
SWX Swiss Block is due to go live in August and will be powered by NYFIX Euro Millennium, a European dark liquidity source. By complementing its existing public limit order book, SWX Europe believes that SWX Swiss Block will help market participants to execute wholesale business anonymously and in bulk with reduced market impact.
The first clients to connect to SWX Swiss Block will be ABN AMRO, Bank Vontobel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Instinet Europe, Lehman Brothers, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, NYFIX International and UBS.
“We are confident that the launch of SWX Swiss Block, along with our tariff reduction programme and the revitalisation of our technology, will fortify our position as the home market for Swiss equities trading,” said Lee Hodgkinson, CEO of SWX Europe, in a statement.
“UBS supports new and innovative platforms that allow us to meet the needs of our clients,” added Phil Allison, head of European client trading and execution at UBS. “We feel that SWX Swiss Block will enhance our execution in Swiss equities.”