Aquis Exchange’s UK and France-based trading venues covering European, UK and Swiss large-cap stocks achieved a record 6.2% monthly market share in pan-European trading in July.
The exchange’s multilateral trading facilities (MTFs) offer members trading in around 1,700 predominantly large-cap stocks across 15 European markets.
Aquis Exchange operates a subscription-based pricing model which charges users according to the message traffic they generate as opposed to charging them based on a percentage of the value of each stock that they trade.
Since its launch 2013, the exchange claimed to have consistently increased its market share of UK/Swiss and EU secondary markets trading.
“Against the backdrop of COVID-19 uncertainty, I am particularly encouraged by this step-up in Aquis Exchange’s market share. I believe it illustrates how we are consistently building momentum and establishing Aquis Exchange as an increasingly major European player,” said Alasdair Haynes, CEO of Aquis Exchange.
Aquis Exchange alongside other UK-based trading venues was forced to open a European counterparty when the UK and Europe were unable to come to an equivalence decision for share trading in the lead up to the Brexit deadline at the end of last year.
The exchange has launched several initiatives in the last year in a bid to maintain a competitive edge in the UK and European markets, most recently in May reaching its own equivalence decision with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s open market.
The deal gave certain stocks that had previously been excluded from trading outside of the UK following Brexit access to Europe through German funds that had previously only invested domestically.
Aquis also announced an incentive scheme in November that would see its top performing market makers awarded with equity in a bid to narrow spreads and boost liquidity on its market growth stocks.