The Japanese launch follows the ongoing success of POSIT Marketplace in Hong Kong and Australia, which in 2011 has delivered an average of 13 basis points of price improvement on all trades and has seen volumes crossed nearly triple in the second quarter versus the prior quarter, driven by a significant rise in the number of institutional clients using the platform.

"Finding liquidity continues to be a challenge for institutions trading Asia Pacific as the choice of off-exchange and dark pool liquidity grows. Japan is a market where there is strong demand for liquidity aggregation given the growing number of liquidity pools and the higher level of average trading costs compared to markets such as the US1," said Michael Corcoran, head of sales and trading for ITG in Asia Pacific. "POSIT Marketplace has built a strong track record in Asia by giving buyside firms the ability to access multiple liquidity pools from a single source. It makes the hunt for liquidity simpler, more efficient and delivers significant cost savings. In a trading environment where every basis point counts, POSIT Marketplace is a vital tool for best execution."

POSIT's extensive global coverage now encompasses Japan, Hong Kong, Australia, the US, Canada and 21 EMEA countries. POSIT currently has more than a 6% share of total European dark liquidity. In the US, POSIT's average daily volume was 83 million shares in the second quarter of 2011, up 20% over the prior year, while average trade size in the POSIT Alert® block indications crossing system was 37,000 shares.