Swedish technology group and exchange operator OMX has won a deal to provide hosting services for the Block Interest Discovery Service (Bids), the alternative platform for equity block stock trading that is being established by a consortium of Wall Street banks.
The Bids system, which will be launched in the spring, has been developed by Alberta Market Solutions and will enable users to anonymously execute block trades. The platform will be accessible to both the buy-side and sell-side firms that want to trade large blocks through continuous order matching and trade negotiation.
Under the terms of the OMX agreement the vendor will provide hosting capabilities for the Bids platform.
Commenting on the contract, Timothy Mahoney, chief executive officer of Bids Trading, says: "Our partnership with OMX provides Bids Trading with the financial technology platform necessary to offer open, efficient access to both the buy and sell side, previously not available on existing crossing networks."
Markus Gerdien, president of market technology, OMX, says the agreement with Bids Trading "reflects the rapidly changing dynamic of marketplaces in North America and Europe, where increasingly alternative trading systems and exchanges are both partners and competitors".
Wall Street banks Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS said in September last year that they were establishing the Bids system. Since then Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan and Knight Capital have also each invested in the platform.