Through this partnership, current users of the Charles River Investment Management System (Charles River IMS) can now easily and anonymously route orders to BIDS Trading's block trading platform; executing blocks of U.S. equities with little to no market impact. The partnership reaffirms both companies' commitment to offer open and comprehensive electronic trading solutions, focused on helping traders reduce costs and risk, as well as increase operational efficiency in a secure environment.

"This integration is a major initiative in our continual support to help traders streamline workflow and facilitate best execution," said Tom Driscoll, Vice President, Sales and Marketing, Charles River Development. "Charles River IMS offers clients a central conduit to all liquidity pools across all asset classes. Our clients can connect with a host of international destinations - and their choices now include the BIDS ATS."

"This connection furthers our efforts to create an open, efficient marketplace to anonymously trade blocks of U.S. equities," said Tim Mahoney. "Connecting Charles River IMS's global client base to the BIDS ATS allows users to anonymously access additional liquidity and helps us continue to deliver on our promise to offer the broadest participation and deepest liquidity pool possible."

The BIDS ATS is accessible to both buy-side and sell-side firms that want to trade large blocks through continuous order matching and trade negotiation. Use of the BIDS ATS as a block trading service is not exclusive or subject to volume commitment and each participant may continue to use any ATS, ECN or exchange service that supports the trading needs of its customer base.

Volume on the BIDS ATS has reached more than 6.4 billion shares* since its launch in 2007.

* Figures are double-counted, to include all volume traded on the BIDS Trading ATS (i.e., both sides of the transaction).