Independent broker dealer JapanCross Securities, a 50:50 joint venture between Instinet Corporation and Nikko Salomon Smith Barney (NSSB), has obtained a proprietary trading system (PTS) licence and received operational approval from Japan's Financial Services Agency.
The company will launch its off-exchange crossing system for Japanese equities on Wednesday, 28 November, 2001, enabling domestic and overseas institutional investors to trade Japanese equities.
JapanCross is an agency-only broker that focuses liquidity at specific times during the day, then matches buyers and sellers anonymously at benchmark prices.
"Our system is easy to use, requires only basic order information and offers executions at prevailing market-determined prices," says George Thomas, JapanCross Securities' representative director & CEO.
The company's first product will be a pre-open VWAP (Volume Weighted Average Price) cross on stocks listed in the Tokyo Stock Exchange First Section. Clients can place orders, through a variety of methods, anytime prior to 7:55 AM JST and will be notified of crossed shares by 8:15 AM JST. Immediately following the market close, JapanCross will issue customised execution reports based on the official VWAP of the day. The company plans to offer additional crosses in the future.