On Thursday, Plus Market Group (PMG) announced that its operating subsidiary, PLUS Markets (PLUS), has been granted Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) status by the Financial Services Authority. With immediate effect, PLUS becomes a UK-based cash equity stock exchange, with the same status as the London Stock Exchange.
“This development takes PMG a step further towards its mission to provide efficient access to Europe’s deepest and widest pools of capital, supporting small order flow at low cost per transaction and providing cost-effective solutions to meet the full range of trading and listing needs of PLUS customers,” says Jamie Whitehorn, general counsel and director of regulatory strategy, PMG, who conducted the RIE application.
As an RIE, PLUS will be formally classified as a ‘market operator’ under MiFID. The new status allows PLUS to expand its primary market offering to a wider range of issuers, says PMG. Alongside its existing “PLUS-quoted” market for growth companies, PMG will shortly open its new “PLUS-listed” market, which will be positioned as an EU-regulated market.
“RIE status is an important and substantial step forward for us as we develop our UK and European equity market offering. Not having this status acted as a barrier to our market for certain users, and its removal makes us totally accessible to all equity market participants. This, together with the new trading platform and our new competitive tariff structure will complete the picture of our offering under MiFID.
We continue to pursue our ambition to become a fully competitive stock exchange for London,” comments Stephen Hazell-Smith, chairman, PMG.