Privately-held FTEN was founded in 2001 by CEO Ted Myerson, with Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan and Credit Suisse taking a minority equity interest in the firm in 2008.

The vendor helps brokers track and manage risks for their clients in real time, an increasingly valuable service as high-frequency trading becomes more popular and attracts greater regulatory scrutiny.

It claims to be the largest processor of real-time financial securities risk management on the planet, covering up to 17 billion executed shares of US equities a day, accounting for $150 billion in risk calculations.

Says Myerson: "We recognised early on that demand for pre-trade risk management tools would dramatically increase as the regulatory environment evolved and the need for comprehensive risk controls moved from niche to mainstream."

Eric Noll, EVP, transaction services, Nasdaq OMX, adds: "As part of Nasdaq OMX, FTEN will be able to increase its penetration globally, greatly broadening its distribution network beyond the US to a worldwide solution, while expanding its US customer base."

The move comes months after Nasdaq OMX agreed a deal to buy Smarts Group, a privately-held Australian provider of market surveillance systems to exchanges, regulators and brokers.