Bloomberg has confirmed that it has gained regulatory approval from the financial authority in the Netherlands to operate a trading venue in Amsterdam ahead of Brexit.
The Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (AFM) provided authorisation for Bloomberg affiliate, Bloomberg Trading Facility BV, to establish the Dutch multilateral trading facility (MTF), known as BTFE.
BTFE will operate alongside Bloomberg’s UK MTF and will provide cross-border trading services from Amsterdam throughout the European Union under a MiFID II passport. Eligible market participants will be able to use Bloomberg’s various services including request for quote and request for trade for cash bonds, repos, CDS, IRS, ETFs, equity derivatives and FX derivatives.
Nicholas Bean, head of electronic trading solutions at Bloomberg and CEO of BTFE, stated that the Dutch MTF is at an advanced stage of development and will be operationally ready early this year.
“We chose Amsterdam as we’ve had a presence in the city for many years and consider that its flourishing business environment, as well as the experience of the AFM, provide the best solution for Bloomberg,” Ben Macdonald, global head of enterprise product at Bloomberg, and supervisory board director of BTFE, also commented.
Earlier this week, the AFM also provided regulatory approval to fixed income and derivatives electronic trading services provider Tradeweb to establish a trading venue and operate as an approved publication arrangement (APA) in Amsterdam. Tradeweb said the authorisation mirrors its current regulatory permissions in the UK, and ensures that it is able to offer the same range of services and execution protocols within the European Union and in the UK.
“We are pleased to announce that eligible market participants will be able to leverage our Dutch MTF to trade in compliance with EU regulatory obligations, notably MiFID II,” Bloomberg’s Bean concluded.