UK central counterparty LCH.Clearnet Limited will start clearing trades in Irish stocks conducted on pan-European multilateral trading facility (MTF) BATS Europe through its EquityClear service from 22 January 2010, subject to regulatory approval. LCH will be the sole clearer for BATS Europe’s Irish trades.
BATS Europe will become the third MTF to offer trading in Irish stocks. Turquoise has traded them since its launch in August 2008 and NYSE Arca Europe added them to its stock universe on 15 June 2009.
“We’re pleased to enter this agreement with LCH.Clearnet and look forward to working together,” said BATS Europe’s CEO Mark Hemsley in a statement. “As always, we will continue to stress the fact that the needs of our customers remain our primary driver in selecting partners and we will continue to prioritise the preferences of our customers in Europe just as we do in the US.”
BATS Europe’s main clearing house is Netherlands-based pan-European post-trade provider European Multilateral Clearing Facility (EMCF), which also clears for Chi-X Europe, Nasdaq OMX Europe and Quote MTF.
BATS Europe, which launched in 2008, currently trades around 1,200 securities in the UK, France, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy Belgium, Switzerland and the Nordic countries.
According to the MTF’s own numbers, it had a 3.8% share of pan-European trading in November and a 7.8% share of trading in the UK’s FTSE 100 index.