Bob Diamond, the controversial former Barclays chief, is in talks about buying a stake in Aquis Exchange, the new pan-European equities trading market being set up by Alasdair Hayne, according to the Financial Times.
Diamond, who became a poster-boy for City excess and was ousted from Barlcays last year in the wake of the Libor scandal, is one of several possible investors in Aquis but no deal has been finalised, says the FT, citing two sources.
Yesterday, the Warsaw Stock Exchange revealed that it is in talks about buying a 30% stake in Aquis.
Aquis - established late last year by former Chi-X Europe chief executive Haynes - is currently waiting for approval from UK regulators for its platform and hopes to launch later in the year.
The venture - which will operate a subscription pricing model - says that it wants to bring competition to a European market which has consolidated in recent years, not least through the merger of Haynes' old platform with Bats Europe.
Haynes has also attracted several Chi-X technology staffers and the new company plans to develop and licence its own exchange software.
Bob Diamond in talks over trading venture investment - FT (sub)