Baikal Names Technology Partners
April 27, 2009
The London Stock Exchange's (LSE) forthcoming pan-European trading platform, Baikal, last week said it is using trading technology provider Fidessa to develop its order management and smart-order routing systems.
The announcement was one of several from Baikal, which also plans to use BNP Paribas Securities Services as its settlement agent and the QuantFeed low-latency market data service from Paris-based Quant House.
Baikal, which was announced in June 2008, was initially planned as a joint venture with Lehman Brothers, which would have provided the smart-order routing functionality as well as most of the underlying technology, according to an LSE spokesperson. After Lehman collapsed, LSE "decided to seek a vendor-led solution to technology provision," he said.
Baikal will be launched in phases, starting with order routing, he said. "We are currently planning to launch the SOR in July, with further functionality, the Baikal order book and algorithms to follow throughout the rest of the year. By launching the [smart-order routing] first, we hope to establish a network of linkages that will allow the order book to maximize trading opportunities at launch." Baikal's non-displayed order book, which will roll out later in the year, will use LSE's TradElect trading platform. Baikal will clear through Cassa di Compensazione e Garanzia, the Italian clearinghouse that LSE acquired through its 2007 purchase of Borsa Italiana.
Noting that about 75 percent of LSE's customers are also Fidessa clients, Steve Grob, director of strategy at London-based Fidessa, said that the vendor will leverage not only its technology, but also its distribution, which includes "a network of 23,000 screens deployed across the buy side and sell side."
