Project Turquoise, the bank-backed equities trading platform that will compete head-to-head with domestic stock exchanges in Europe, will not launch until the second quarter of 2008.
According to a Financial Times report, the preparation of a lengthy and complex legal agreement with its chosen technology supplier will delay the launch of the platform until the second quarter of 2008. The service was originally expected to be operational in November when MiFID comes into force.
Turquoise is being set up by Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS to compete with domestic stock exchanges in Europe - in particular the LSE - following the introduction of the EU's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID).
The chosen platform provider has not been disclosed, although speculation has focused on Sweden's OMX. Earlier this year DTCC subsidiary EuroCCP was selected to provide clearing and settlement services for the new venture.
News of the delay comes as Instinet says it has added trading in FTSE 100 stocks to its Chi-X Europe platform, which has also been established to compete with the European stock exchanges and launched in April this year.