UBS Securities Australia, a subsidiary of global investment bank UBS, has become the first broker to launch its non-displayed internal crossing pool, UBS Price Improvement Network (PIN), in Australia.
The new service will give the bank’s clients will have access to dark liquidity in stocks listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). UBS PIN allows client orders to cross with other UBS institutional and retail client agency order flow, before being routed on to the displayed ASX order book.
“Launched originally in the US and Europe, and most recently in Hong Kong, UBS PIN delivers substantial benefits to clients providing the opportunity for price improvement with minimum impact on the stock price,” said Gary Head, managing director, UBS client trading execution, Australasia, in a statement. “PIN provides new signal-free liquidity to our clients. In an increasingly fragmented market that serves the important purpose of allowing clients to send large orders without the risks of price impact.”
All orders in UBS PIN follow a price-time priority, so orders entered with the best prices and at the earliest times are crossed first. UBS algorithms will have the ability to automatically interact with PIN.
Presently, regulatory restrictions mean buy-side only crossing network Liquidnet Australia and ITG POSIT are the only alternative trading venues allowed to operate in the country. Displayed alternative trading venues Chi-X and AXE-ECN are waiting in the wings ready to launch once they have been granted regulatory approval.