Oslo Børs has delayed its implementation of TradElect, a trading platform for cash equities and fixed income supplied by the London Stock Exchange (LSE).
The Norwegian exchange had planned to complete its latest dress rehearsal for customers migrating to the new platform on 30 January before the planned final switchover on 15 February. Testing and migration have now both been postponed until 12 April to give members more time to prepare for the changeover, according to Oslo Børs. The final dress rehearsal for customers will now take place on 27 March.
“Participation and test results from our two previous dress rehearsals on 12 December 2009 and 16 January 2010 were encouraging, but could not prove that the market is fully ready for go live as originally planned,” read a statement from the exchange. “We thus acknowledge our members’ request for more time for testing and necessary system adjustments in order to be comfortable and ready to go live.”
Oslo Børs – the only remaining Nordic exchange not under the control of exchange group Nasdaq OMX – signed a memorandum of understanding with the LSE in December 2008 to explore areas of strategic cooperation. As well upgrading its current equities and fixed income trading platform to TradElect, the agreement also included installing the SOLA derivatives trading platform, following a licensing deal struck between the LSE and Canadian exchange operator TMX Group, which developed SOLA.
According to Fidessa’s Fragmentation Index, a weekly analysis of on-order-book trading across Europe, Oslo Børs accounted for 91.64% of Norwegian blue chip trading last week. Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, which started trading Norwegian stocks last March accounted for 3.31%.