French banking group BNP Paribas has agreed a deal to provide pan-European post trade services for Nyfix's Euro Millennium, an off-exchange trading system for listed cash equities that is expected to launch in early 2008.
Under the deal BNP Paribas Securities Services will provide Euro Millennium with an integrated post trade service using its own network and local agents.
The Euro Millennium ATS will be a UK regulated multi-lateral trading facility (MTF) for non-displayed liquidity in pan-European listed cash equities. The platform was originally scheduled for release in Q4 2007 but launch has been delayed and the the New York vendor has incurred increasing pre-operating start-up costs for the London-based venture.
Jason Nabi, head of financial intermediaries UK at BNP Paribas Securities Services, says the Nyfix deal "demonstrates our commitment to developing innovative solutions for a changing market".
"In the last two years, BNP Paribas has seen a great deal of development and growth in the UK and moving forward we see the MTF space as an important new client segment for the bank," says Nabi.
BNP Paribas already provides post-trade processing for Instinet's Chi-X ATS.
The French group has also acquired a small stake in the delayed bank-backed equities trading facility Turquoise and is also partnering with transatlantic exchange operator Nyse Euronext and investment banks HSBC to launch an electronic block trading platform for European listed stocks, dubbed Project SmartPool.