Exchange group NYSE Euronext has introduced a global incentive programme, which allows clients to aggregate equities trading volumes across six of the group’s equities exchanges to get discounts. The group claimed this incentive, which came into force on 1 October, would increase efficiencies and produce cost savings for clients who trade high volumes on its regulated European and US equities markets.
Rival exchange group Nasdaq OMX introduced pricing based on clients’ global transaction volumes on 26 September. This covered the group’s markets in the US, the Nordic region, the Middle East and the UK.
The equities exchanges included in NYSE Euronext’s new scheme include the New York Stock Exchange, NYSE Arca, NYSE Alternext US (formerly the American Stock Exchange), and the Euronext exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, Lisbon and Paris. The group is also strongly considering including SmartPool, its non-displayed liquidity pool, and Octopus, its planned multilateral trading facility (MTF), in the scheme. The underlying rates and volume tiers on NYSE, NYSE Arca and the European markets remain unchanged.
“By rewarding our high-volume customers for trading across all of our market centres, we are enabling them to derive additional value from our global platform, and encouraging them to send more orders to our market centers,” said Duncan Niederauer, CEO of NYSE Euronext, in a statement.
NYSE Euronext contends that the benefits of the new scheme will become more apparent following the launch of Octopus and its Universal Trading Platform in 2009. Octopus, scheduled to begin the first part of its phased launch in November this year, will trade pan-European blue-chip stocks not currently offered on the Euronext markets. The Universal Trading Platform is a single point of access to all NYSE Euronext’s cash and derivatives platforms.