A secure fully-managed connection will link TNS' Secure Trading Extranet to the pan-European multi-lateral trading facility (MTF).

Alan Schwartz, president of North America Sales at TNS said: "We're delighted to be working with Chi-X Europe to open up access to trading and free market data, by providing secure, high availability and high speed connectivity in support of mission critical trading activity. Accurate real time price information is the cornerstone of trading, in an industry where milliseconds do truly mean millions.

"Liquidity across Europe is fragmenting as a result of MiFID and innovators such as Chi-X Europe are driving the change to a far more efficient equity market for investors and asset managers.

"TNS' Secure Trading Extranet provides reliable, secure, low latency connectivity, and will be a valuable tool for Chi-X Europe as it seeks to build upon its strong liquidity position."

Hirander Misra, Director, Chi-X Europe Limited, said: "This connection provides market participants with a greater choice as to how they route orders and receive pricing information. Chi-X Europe is committed to delivering a low cost, ultra fast trading platform, and providing clients with this latest connection furthers the goal of making market data readily available free of charge."

The deal also enables Chi-X Europe's participants to connect to TNS' extensive community of interest, incorporating over 1,000 financial community end-points, representing buy and sell-side institutions, market data and software vendors, exchanges and alternative trading venues. It boasts over 100 points of presence and provides services to customers in 28 countries across America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region, with its reach extending to many more.

Financial institutions using TNS' network can access a variety of mission critical trade-related messages, data and applications which supports order routing, trade executions, direct market access and algorithmic trading.

Security is paramount, with high-value transactions protected by access validation, end-to-end encryption and secure points-of-presence.