Europe

Global buy-side crossing network Liquidnet has started offering its members trading in global depository receipts (GDRs) listed on the Luxembourg Stock Exchange.

Exchange group Nasdaq OMX has revealed plans to start trading equities listed in Norway from 23 March, pitting itself against Oslo Børs, the country’s incumbent exchange. Oslo Børs has returned fire with plans to cut trading fees.

Euro Millennium, the pan-European dark pool for equities trading, has been asked by the UK’s financial regulator to make modifications to its functionality, according to a statement by parent company NYFIX, the US-based trading solutions vendor.

While progress has been slow on achieving interoperability between Europe’s cash equity central counterparties (CCPs), it is unlikely that the European Commission (EC) will step in and mandate links between clearing houses any time soon for fear of causing more job losses across the continent.

Peter Randall has decided to step down as CEO of pan-European multilateral trading facility Chi-X Europe for personal reasons.

Sell-side institutions that direct client flow via smart order routers are unlikely to use the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) proposed hidden or dark order types because of the restrictions imposed by MiFID’s large in scale (LIS) rules.

Competition among Europe’s central counterparties (CCPs) can offer greater benefits to market participants than the US’s largely single-clearer model, according to Marco Strimer, CEO of Swiss clearing house SIX x-clear.

Reported plans for a single eurozone clearing house for securities trades by a working group led by the Banque de France could counter attempts to unify Europe’s post-trade environment and reflects growing protectionism in the region.

Pan-European multilateral trading facility Nasdaq OMX Europe has hired Stuart Rutherford, currently head of trading services at UK stock exchange PLUS Markets, as head of sales.

Two links have already been forged between European central counterparties (CCPs), and more are being worked on amid growing demand for trading platforms to have multiple clearing houses.