Instinet and Virtu Financial launch liquidity streaming relationship

LONDON, June 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Instinet Europe Limited and Virtu Financial Ireland Limited (Virtu) announced today that they have entered into a bilateral liquidity streaming relationship.  This relationship provides Instinet's buy and sell side clients with aggregated liquidity and opportunities for price improvement.

Instinet clients now have access to additional liquidity at the touch, filling a gap between lit venues and large in scale blocks. This provides opportunities for price improvement and larger size fills, which minimizes clients' footprint in the market. Instinet's agency aggregation services already connect to conditional and over the counter (OTC) liquidity venues, as well as exchanges and Multilateral Trading Facilities (MTF).

The liquidity streaming relationship also provides clients with new options to interact with market maker liquidity. Clients remain anonymous but the arrangement provides the liquidity provider with Instinet as a known counterparty, to which the liquidity provider can offer price improvement and larger size.

As the marketplace anticipates MiFID II regulatory changes to liquidity provision, a shift toward bilateral trading relationships and the registration of additional Systematic Internalisers (SIs), market participants will be required to change the way they route orders, interact with, and access sources of liquidity. This relationship with Virtu reinforces Instinet's commitment to offer more diverse sources of liquidity, and to simplify the potential post- MiFID II execution process for the firm's buy and sell side clients.

"The trading environment is poised to become even more complex, while at the same time, clients will be asked to attest to their best execution practices. Instinet's highly configurable infrastructure can be tailored to each client, which enables us to serve as their agency-model hub or neutral curator of diverse sources of liquidity," said Richard Parsons, CEO of Instinet Europe Limited.

Christiaan Scholtes, Head of EMEA Markets at Virtu, said: "As the liquidity landscape in Europe undergoes a fundamental paradigm shift, we're looking for intelligent ways to adapt.  We see this relationship as an opportunity to transparently and efficiently provide our risk liquidity to a broader set of participants through Instinet's high quality, neutral agency platform."

About Instinet 
As the equity execution services arm of the Nomura Group, Instinet Incorporated's subsidiaries provide independent, agency-model brokerage services to clients throughout the world. Through its advanced suite of electronic trading tools, experienced high-touch trading group and unparalleled access to insightful content and liquidity, Instinet helps institutions lower overall trading costs and ultimately improve investment performance. Over the course of its 45+ year history, Instinet has introduced a range of now industry-standard trading technologies as well as the world's first major electronic trading venue, one of the first U.S. ECNs and the Chi-X businesses. For more information, please visit instinet.com.

About Virtu Financial, LLC 
Virtu is the global leader in electronic market making. We actively make markets across a broad range of asset classes including equities, foreign exchange, commodities, options and fixed income, providing two-sided liquidity on over two hundred market centers around the world. As market makers, we lower costs for both retail and institutional investors by supplying competitive bids and offers, without seeking to take on risky directional positions. Virtu's liquidity provision plays a vital role in the overall health and efficiency of the global financial markets, especially in times of market turbulence.

©2017, Instinet Incorporated and its subsidiaries. All rights reserved. INSTINET is a registered trademark in the United States and other countries throughout the world. Approved for distribution: in Australia by Instinet Australia Pty Limited (ACN: 131 253 686 AFSL No: 327834), which is regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission; in Canada by Instinet Canada Limited, members IIROC/CIPF; in Europe by Instinet Europe Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; in Hong Kong by Instinet Pacific Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the Securities and Futures Commission of Hong Kong; in Singapore by Instinet Singapore Services Private Limited, which is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, a trading member of The Singapore Exchange Securities Trading Private Limited and a clearing member of The Central Depository (Pte) Limited; and in the US by Instinet, LLC, member SIPC.

SOURCE Instinet