The first stocks trading on Chi-X Europe are:

• Fortum Ord
• Nokia Ord
• Sampo
• Stora Enso R Ord
• UPM Kymmene Ord

"Since launching more than one year ago, we have introduced trading services for many of Europe's most heavily-traded equities and are pleased to extend coverage to these top Finnish names," commented Peter Randall, CEO of Chi-X Europe Limited. "Since launch, Chi-X Europe participants have regularly enjoyed price improvement and significantly lower trading costs. We remain encouraged by our early success, and believe that Chi-X Europe will continue to bring considerable execution quality benefits to the trading community through our faster, cheaper and smarter model."

The introduction of trading in Finnish stocks on Chi-X Europe may lead to considerable savings for institutional investors. Currently, trading Finnish stocks on the Helsinki Stock Exchange costs an average of 0.78 bps*, compared to Chi-X Europe's 0.05 bps cost (based on a passive/aggressive rebate ratio of 50:50).

Central counterparty services have previously not been available for Finnish equities, but with today's announcement, clearing and settlement for the OMX Helsinki 25 component stocks will be centralised via Fortis' European Multilateral Clearing Facility (EMCF) entity. Trades in these stocks will be settled in the Nordic Central Securities Depository, and will be fully fungible for clients whether traded on Chi-X Europe or on the primary market. With this new structure in place, overall trading, clearing and settlement through Chi-X Europe and EMCF is anticipated to be around 12.5 times less expensive* when compared to the current market infrastructure.

* Based on Instinet Europe Limited's analysis of trading, clearing and settlement costs.