Aquis Exchange, a pan-European trading exchange set up by industry veteran Alasdair Haynes, has received approval from the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to begin trading as a multilateral trading facility.
Aquis - established late last year by former Chi-X Europe chief executive Haynes - will now hold a dress rehearsal later this week which, if successful, could pave the way for a launch before the end of the month.
The new platform is promising to shake up the European trading landscape, where currently a couple of exchanges dominate the market in each country, by introducing subscription pricing.
Similar to the model employed in the telecoms industry, the pricing model is designed to encourage participation from all categories of professional trading firm. Users will be charged according to the message traffic they generate, rather than a percentage of the value of each stock that they trade.
Says Haynes: "We are very pleased to have received the green light from the FCA just a year after announcing the creation of Aquis Exchange. We can now forge ahead with the introduction of subscription pricing to the European cash equities market."