Cicada has entered exclusive negotiations to become the provider of independent securities information processing (SIP) services to US stock markets under the Nasdaq/UTP Plan.
The new SIP will collect, consolidate, and disseminate trading information for Nasdaq-listed securities on behalf of the American Stock Exchange, Boston Stock Exchange, Chicago Stock Exchange, Cincinnati Stock Exchange, NASD, Nasdaq, Pacific Exchange/Archipelago, and the Philadelphia Stock Exchange.
The search for an independent SIP was suggested by the Securities and Exchange Commission in relation to Nasdaq's launch of SuperMontage and its registration to become a national securities exchange. The Nasdaq/UTP Committee started its selection process in November 2001.
It is envisaged that Cicada will employ its Composer data management and distribution technology as the foundation for building the new facility which will collect, consolidate and disseminate Plan Participants’ quotation and trade report information to data vendors and other channels. The vendor has teamed with Sprint for the required managed hosting and network communications
Hubert Holmes, Cicada's executive vice president, comments: "Composer has proven itself at the Deutsche Börse where it manages and disseminates financial market and reference data for multiple exchanges."