Old Mutual Financial Services has contracted with the London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange to use Liffe Connect as the trading platform for its Market Touch retail order execution venture.
Under the agreement, Market Touch will take delivery of a bespoke version of Liffe Connect, incorporating a modified API for customised order functionality. Old Mutual says the system will be used "to provide a robust trading hub with high volume capacity and optimum speed of execution".
Old Mutual says the Market Touch system will be paraded before retail brokers next month. It is being billed as an electronic communications network for capturing retail order flow. Old Mutual says that other brokers will be invited to become shareholders. The deadline for live launch is November.
Eric Anstee, chief executive of Old Mutual Financial Services says: "Liffe Connect provides the perfect solution for Market Touch. It will match large volumes quickly and efficiently, combining today's requirement for immediacy with tomorrow's requirement for limit handling."
Brian Williamson, chairman of Liffe says the contract demonstrates that Liffe Connect is capable of meeting complex trading challenges beyond the derivatives market for which it was originally designed.