Exchange operator Nyse Euronext is preparing to launch a platform specifically designed for European retail investors.
The MiFID-compliant Retail Matching Facility (RMF), set to launch in January, will provide a venue away from institutional investors and high-frequency traders.
Nyse Euronext member banks and brokers can execute their retail order flow via the RMF against new price improving liquidity. Furthermore, says the operator, they won't need to invest in new connections as they will be able to use their existing access to regulated cash markets.
Retail investors' orders will be eligible to trade with both liquidity providers, whose role will be to provide buy and sell quotes in the RMF, and Nyse Euronext's central order book.
The retail liquidity providers will trade with the retail orders exclusively according to the ordinary price-time priority principle, in full competition with each other and the central order book itself.
If the liquidity providers' quotes are not competitively placed then the retail investors' orders will automatically trade with Nyse Euronext's central order book thus preserving its order flow diversity.
Alicia Suminski, head, market and product development, European equity cash and derivatives, Nyse Euronext, says: "The aim of Nyse Euronext's Retail Matching Facility is to promote a more competitive, transparent environment for retail investors than they currently achieve through bilateral, internal arrangements with intermediaries."