The European equities business of the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), formerly the equities division of ABN Amro, has entered an agreement that will allow its clients’ electronic orders to be executed in investment bank Goldman Sachs’ non-displayed liquidity pool.
The move is designed to boost the amount of dark liquidity the RBS division can offer its clients. “This agreement has been driven by what we think strategically is the right move, and by demand from our client base to be able to access a greater and more varied pool of liquidity,” Assad Amin, global head of equity execution services at Royal Bank of Scotland, told theTRADEnews.com.
With on-exchange order size dwindling, there is a growing demand from the buy-side for dark pool liquidity, which allows them to trade large blocks of stock off-exchange without revealing their intentions moving the market.
“With the increased focus on being able to execute our clients’ business with minimal market impact, and at the same time preserving anonymity, this agreement enables us to increase the amount of non-displayed liquidity we can access and to lower the implicit trading costs for our clients,” Amin said in a statement.
ABN Amro was acquired in October 2007 by a consortium of banks comprising RBS, Fortis and Santander.