Instinet Incorporated, a global leader in electronic trading and agency-only brokerage services, today announced that its European agency brokerage subsidiary, Instinet Europe Limited, has successfully completed conformance testing on the BATS Europe MTF. As a result, Instinet Europe’s institutional clients will be able to have immediate access to the multilateral trading facility (MTF) from its anticipated 31 October launch.
“Successfully connecting to BATS Europe is a significant milestone in the continued development of our execution and smart order routing capabilities,” said Richard Balarkas, CEO of Instinet Europe Limited. “From the moment BATS Europe goes live, Instinet’s global client base will be able to access it via sales traders, DMA or through our Instinet Execution Experts™ algorithms.
Added Balarkas: “In less than three years, BATS has carved out a significant market share in the U.S. With the European equities markets in the midst of considerable change, BATS’ arrival in Europe seems certain to further shake up competition between the traditional exchanges and the new MTFs. BATS’ U.S. success has been driven in large part by its provision of improved liquidity and prices for the international trading community, and Instinet, whose sole mission as an agency-only broker is to achieve the highest quality trade execution for our clients, wishes them all the best in their attempt to do the same in Europe.”
Mark Hemsley, CEO of BATS’ European Markets Division, added, “We are delighted that a broker with the international reputation of Instinet will join the other firms connected from day one as BATS seeks to follow its U.S. success by Making Markets Better in Europe. We are confident that access to our liquidity will offer price improvement opportunities for Instinet’s global client base and we look forward to working with the Instinet team.”
Instinet Europe Limited is one of Europe’s largest agency-only brokerages and is the seventh largest broker by market share ranking on the London Stock Exchange 1. The firm employs more than 40 sales and trading personnel in four European locations. Instinet Europe provides its clients with a comprehensive suite of trading services that includes agency sales trading, global portfolio trading, algorithmic trading, DMA, smart order routing, commission management and its BlockMatch® MTF.
1 According to the London Stock Exchange Reporting Service – Q3 2008.
