LSE offers trading in UK equities and global depositary receipts. TAL customers can see and trade from the full depth of book - with access to all executable bids and offers at every price level - for SETS, SETSmm and the International Order Book (IOB). The IOB is currently the world's largest international electronic order book, capturing over US $10.8 billon worth of liquidity every month.

TAL's turnkey service bureau solution effectively lowers the cost of access to the Exchange, as it hosts and maintains all trading and market data feed hardware and software plus Exchange connections. Traders benefit from fast market access, complete anonymity, and access to a complete suite of tools and services to mitigate risk and manage their trades, with minimum investment on their part. And by using RealTick, traders can easily employ a variety of advanced order types including conditional, iceberg and stops, as well as execute basket and algorithmic trades.

"This technical capability offers both the buy side and sell side more choice and independence when accessing the LSE markets and executing trades," comments Rustam Lam, Managing Director for TAL Europe. "While service bureau users either have to be LSE members or sponsored by Exchange member-brokers, they can now execute trades either through their existing broker's order management and routing system or through the TAL direct connection," he explains.

"Furthermore, in the wake of ongoing regulatory requirements for unbundling and best execution, we expect demand for additional flexibility and choice within the market - especially from remote members, as well as brokers and institutions wanting to access the Exchange market without having to build and maintain a robust technical architecture themselves," Lam adds.

David Lester, Chief Information Officer for the London Stock Exchange, states, "We are delighted to welcome Townsend Analytics as an accredited Vendor Access Network provider of trading connectivity to the Exchange. This agreement extends the scope of connectivity options for brokers and we look forward to working with Townsend Analytics to promote access to our markets," he adds.