Japanese investment bank Nomura has received approval to operate its NX non-displayed internal crossing engine in Hong Kong.
NX is scheduled for launch as an alternative trading system (ATS) in Hong Kong at the end of May, after receiving regulatory approval from domestic regulator the Securities and Futures Commission.
Nomura will start by trading Hong Kong-listed stocks from all of its institutional order flow in NX, including program trades, electronic trades, principal liquidity and single stock work orders.
According to Nomura, clients that cross orders in NX can benefit from anonymity and price improvement.
All trades executed in NX will be automatically reported to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) and will trade within the bid-offer spread published on HKEx.
“Launching NX in Hong Kong further enhances our offering to clients by delivering solutions to achieve best execution, minimising trading costs and bolstering Nomura’s electronic trading platform in the region,” said Robert Laible, head of electronic trading services and program trading sales, Asia-Pacific, in a statement.
“The NX architecture provides global-standard capabilities with components that are customised to adapt to the regulatory environment in the jurisdictions in which it operates,” added Ross Whittaker, product manager for NX Asia-Pacific.
Nomura joins a number of brokers operating crossing services in Hong Kong, including Goldman Sachs’ SIGMA, UBS PIN and Citi Match. Collectively, ATSs account for around 3% of equity trading in Hong Kong.
The launch of NX in Hong Kong is the latest in a series of initiatives from Nomura to expand its internal dark pool globally. NX went live in Japan and the US in late 2009. The bank also reclassified the European version of NX as a multilateral trading facility for commercial reasons in January 2010.