London - Forum Trading Solutions Ltd said it acquired a trading technology platform and regulatory managed service provider from PLUS Markets Group plc and would set up the venture as a new company. Terms were not disclosed.

Forum is a neutral 'exchange-in-a-box' matching and surveillance service. It gives investment banks, brokers and trading venues their own matching system solution to help them comply with new regulations across multiple asset classes. It provides managed trading services to both PLUS Stock Exchange, which is in the process of being acquired by Icap Holdings Ltd, and PLUS Derivatives Exchange.

"Quite simply the age of the 0.1 bps cash equities MTF model is old news given forthcoming regulatory change," said Forum Chairman Hirander Misra said. "Forum responds to the growing demand from market participants to segregate or create their own marketplaces with a cost effective fixed license fee model irrespective of the asset class traded. All that too enabled by exchange technology that we believe is the fastest and most resilient in the world."

Forum Managing Director Tony Harrop added: "One month ago, the team were looking at a wind-down situation and the premature end of a great solution. The team had been working hard on producing the most streamlined and highest performance multi asset exchange trading platform that can run on standard hardware and by setting up Forum we have the opportunity to progress and deliver something that we all believe in. This also gives the best outcome for the PLUS quoted companies as there will be no change in their service going forward."

Forum founder shareholders consist of Misra, former co-founder of Chi-X Europe, Harrop, Plus Markets Group CTO, Richard Atkins, who was head of trading system management and development at the London Stock Exchange, and all eight employees of the PLUS-TS technology team.