ICAPs electronic FX business EBS revealed that EBS Select completed its first trade on March 24, 2015. In a press statement the firm does not refer to it as a dark pool but as a “non-disclosed, segmented, bilateral liquidity pool” that has gone live with a beta version.
EBS Select is the third EBS liquidity pool and it “complements EBS Market, the flagship anonymous central limit order book platform, and EBS Direct, the relationship-based disclosed bilateral trading platform,” according to a joint EBS and ICAP press statement.
According to the firms, 30 Liquidity Consumers (LCs) and six Liquidity Providers (LPs) are participating in the beta program. “EBS Select uses a global distribution model where LPs price from co-location centers, intra-region from New York, London and Tokyo, to local customers,” reads the statement.
“EBS Select meets the growing demand to trade non-disclosed, while retaining the advantages of trading through segmented, permissioned liquidity and the credit lines of an EBS Prime Bank,” according to the press statement.
The counterparties that an LC can trade with via EBS Select are different to those on EBS Direct, thereby offering a unique trading and execution experience. Andrew Cheesman has done a great job leading this effort, now as Global Head of EBS Select, and the launch of this beta phase is an important milestone for the product,” said Jeff Ward, Global Head of EBS Direct. “We are very pleased to be able to offer yet another way to trade on EBS with optimum liquidity and pricing.
