Quote MTF began trading in 10 French stocks on Friday, with the remaining 825 shares it intends to offer set to be rolled out over the next six weeks.

The new entrant is majority-backed by BRMS, a holding company with stakes in the recently-launched Omega ATS in Canada. The BRMS vehicle is owned by Peter Beck, founder of Canadian securities dealer SwiftTrade.

Quote MTF is entering an already crowded market, characterised by declining volumes and cut-throat pricing for scarce liquidity. Rival MTFs Chi-x and Bats Europe have both recently slashed fees as the battle for equity market share heats up.

The newcomer says its no-frills business model - with back office operations in Hungary and a London-based matching engine collocated at the Interxion data centre - will help it keep fees low and stand out in the "highly challenging" European market.

The platform claims to offer the lowest liquidity removal fee (0.14 basis points) in Europe and free trading when adding liquidity.

Tamas Madlena, CEO, Quote MTF, says: "We are happy that we had a smooth start with our platform on Friday. It is our firm belief that the no frills business model geared to reduce complexity and to push costs further down by using and applying all available standards brings value to the European trading community."

The proprietary matching engine can be accessed via DMA and sponsored access, with trading anonymous. Industry standards FIX 4.2 and ITCH 3.0 are used for order and data communication respectively.

Dutch CCP EMCF is acting as central counterparty for all trades and will soon be joined by SIS x-clear, providing netting, collateral management and settlement for all stocks.