BATS Europe to launch dark pool

Mark Hemsley, CEO, BATS Europe: "We believe the costs for participants to send orders to other dark pools are unnecessarily high and offering dark pool access at aggressive fee levels is another example of BATS Europe leading the way forward in providing first class execution at competitive prices."

BATS Europe, a subsidiary of BATS Global Markets, plans to launch a dark pool in August and will rebate participants that add liquidity whilst charging to remove liquidity in the dark.

The Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF) will announce its specific maker/taker pricing at a later date.

BATS Europe participants will be able to send orders to the dark pool using existing FIX handlers with orders hidden and executed at a midpoint reference price. Advanced features for orders, such as setting a minimum execution quantity, will be included in the dark pool offering.

"BATS Europe is pleased to offer a dark pool coupled with efficient, low latency technology. Our dark pool will complement our current order book, which combines visible and hidden order types, whilst providing participants an additional means to reduce information leakage and minimize market impact," said BATS Europe CEO Mark Hemsley.

"We believe the costs for participants to send orders to other dark pools are unnecessarily high and offering dark pool access at aggressive fee levels is another example of BATS Europe leading the way forward in providing first class execution at competitive prices. We will reward participants that add liquidity to our dark pool via a rebate pricing structure since they create the opportunity for liquidity removers to benefit from price improvement," he said.

The company is currently reviewing the provision of the dark pool with the Financial Services Authority and anticipates availability for testing in July.