Europe

Interdealer broker ICAP has confirmed it is an equal member of a consortium of financial institutions that is considering making a bid for European clearing house LCH.Clearnet.

NYSE Arca Europe, a multilateral trading facility from exchange group NYSE Euronext, has again delayed its launch after further consultations with customers.

Nomura International, the London-based division of Japanese investment bank Nomura, has become a member of Nasdaq OMX Nordic as it builds out its new European equity electronic trading platform, launched on 12 January.

Turquoise, a broker-backed pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), has announced a series of upgrades to improve response times and capacity on its platform.

BT Global Financial Services is to launch its Radianz Ultra Access connectivity service in London in April, after successfully introducing the low-latency solution in New York and Chicago.

ITG, an agency broker and trading technology firm, will extend its product range to new European markets as part of its 2009 expansion plans.

Eurex, the Frankfurt-based international derivatives exchange, has introduced a series of cost incentives to attract new members to its platform.

Smartpool, a European non-displayed trading venue operated by exchange group NYSE Euronext, has received approval from the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA) to launch on 2 February as planned.

Chi-X, a pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF), will prolong its market hours for the Spanish markets by 30 minutes to close at 16.00 UK local time from 2 February.

Quadriserv, a North American provider of securities lending services, and Eurex Clearing, the post-trade division of European derivatives exchange Eurex, have joined forces to provide central counterparty (CCP) clearing and settlement services for securities lending of European equities.