Bulge-bracket broker Goldman Sachs has received approval from UK regulator the Financial Services Authority to launch its dark multilateral trading facility (MTF), SIGMA X MTF.
SIGMA X MTF is scheduled to launch during Q2 this year and will use a platform provided by NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of exchange group NYSE Euronext. The MTF, which will be seeded with liquidity from Goldman Sachs' SIGMA broker crossing network, will be the first broker-operated platform to be hosted on NYSE Euronext's Universal Trading Platform, the exchange group's single trading engine and market connectivity point.
David Shrimpton, formerly head of equity market development at the London Stock Exchange, was hired by Goldman Sachs specifically to spearhead SIGMA X MTF.
“We believe the introduction of the MTF will generate additional liquidity and extend the franchise that we have built up over the last few years,” Shrimpton told theTRADEnews.com when SIGMA X MTF was first announced in December last year.
The proposed launch of SIGMA X MTF follows similar moves by UBS and Nomura, which launched their MTFs in November 2010 and January 2010 respectively.
According to figures from Thomson Reuters, Nomura's NX MTF traded just over €1.99 billion in February 2011, making it the fifth largest dark pool in Europe with a market share of 8.95%. UBS MTF traded €145.8 million, or 0.65% of European dark trading. Total trading of dark MTFs reached €22.32 billion in Feburary.