Chicago-based market making firm GETCO plans to launch a European version of its US crossing network, GETCO Execution Services.
Speaking on a panel at the TradeTech trading and technology conference held this week in London, Jon Ross, global head of execution services, GETCO, told delegates that the firm would launch an internal crossing engine to match orders at the European best bid and offer, or better.
“We want to give clients the opportunity to execute against liquidity they would not have otherwise interacted with, with minimum information leakage,” said Ross. “We are aiming to compete with firms to provide liquidity.”
He added that the firm is currently in discussions to sign up clients and hopes to have the system ready to launch in the coming months.
The venue would be registered as an over-the-counter venue under MiFID and operate in a similar fashion to the alternative trading system GETCO already operates in the US. According to Let There Be Light, an analysis of dark pool trading by boutique brokerage Rosenblatt Securities, GETCO Execution Services traded 0.99% of US consolidated volume in February.
Crossing engines have recently come under the microscope by the Committee of European Securities Regulators (CESR), the body responsible for ensuring consistent implementation of financial regulation within the European Union. Last week, CESR released a consultation paper that suggested broker dark pools should be forced to reclassify as multilateral trading facilities when they reach a certain size.