Connexus provides connectivity in support of all aspects of the trade lifecycle and creates a trading ecosystem that brings together buy-side firms, sell-side firms, inter-dealer brokers, liquidity venues, independent software vendors, market data providers and clearing and settlement firms.

BATS operates two stock exchanges in the U.S., BATS BZX Exchange and BYX Exchange; BATS Options, a U.S. equity options market; and BATS Chi-X Europe, the largest pan-European equities market operator by market share and notional value. Each of these markets is powered by BATS' innovative and proprietary technology, upon which customers rely to execute trading activities in today's fast-paced capital markets.

"Partnering with industry providers like IPC to provide an open connectivity model to our platform allows us to offer our members maximum flexibility in accessing our exchanges," said Chris Isaacson, chief operating officer, BATS Global Markets. "We aim to provide our members with connectivity choice and are pleased to include IPC as one of our partners."

"IPC is exclusively focused on the capital markets and is committed to providing industry leading, value-added communications solutions for the trading community," said Joe Pickel, vice president, Network Services Product Management, IPC. "Both the equity and options trading environment are extremely demanding and a financial extranet service that offers global reach and superior customer service brings a significant competitive advantage for traders."

Connexus is part of the IPC Financial Markets Network service portfolio which also includes private extranet and Direct Connect data services, as well as Trader and Enhanced voice connectivity services. IPC's Financial Markets Network interconnects global fi­nancial centers and allows access to more than 4,000 market participant locations in over 700 cities in nearly 60 countries. Built on an IP/MPLS backbone, the highly scalable and secure Connexus supports a number of industry standard and trading protocols.