virt-x Exchange Limited and NYFIX, Inc. (Pink Sheets: NYFX) announced today the signing of an agreement to jointly deliver a non-displayed block trading service for Swiss Blue Chip Equities. The service will be owned and operated by virt-x and powered by NYFIX Euro Millennium, the neutral multi lateral trading facility (MTF) to be launched early next year by NYFIX International Limited, NYFIX’s UK-based subsidiary.
As an exchange based facility, supervised by the UK’s Financial Services Authority, the service will present market participants with a number of important benefits, helping them to execute wholesale business with reduced market impact at improved prices.
The block trading service will be open to all professional market participants globally, and will offer a continuous matching pool for wholesale orders. Bids and offers will not be displayed to the market. Executions will be anonymous and cleared via virt-x’s existing clearing and settlement infrastructure. The existing public limit order book service operated by virt-x remains unchanged.
The service will be introduced in mid-2008, subject to regulatory approvals.
Lee Hodgkinson, virt-x CEO, said:
“Today’s announcement represents the latest step in our strategy to deliver leading edge services to our customers. Together with our revised pricing model announced in October, this innovative service fortifies our position as the pre-eminent liquidity venue for trading in Swiss blue-chip equities. We are excited to be working with NYFIX who, as a major player in the non-displayed liquidity space, brings with them a wealth of experience and a global network of market participants.”
Howard Edelstein, Chief Executive Officer at NYFIX commented:
“We’re delighted to announce this exciting new partnership with virt-x. Given the rapid pace of change taking place across the European financial industry post MiFID, this strategic initiative with virt-x marks an important milestone in our continued drive to offer innovative services to support our clients’ trading needs.”
Chris Smith, Head of Euro Millennium and Director of NYFIX International added,
"We are extremely pleased that virt-x has selected the Euro Millennium service to provide the core technology for this important new initiative. By providing Exchange members with access to Euro Millennium’s neutral pool of non-displayed liquidity in parallel with its existing limit order book facility, virt-x is moving to the forefront in terms of market structure innovation.”
