Press releases 2006

12 June 2006

LONDON STOCK EXCHANGE ANNOUNCES FIX GATEWAY SERVICE, LINKING BUY-SIDE AND SELL-SIDE DIRECT

The London Stock Exchange today announced details of its FIX Gateway service, a vendor-neutral, high-speed message routing service which provides a single connection for buy-side clients to sell-side brokers and other execution venues.

Martin Graham, Director of Market Services at the London Stock Exchange, commented:

"The secondary markets are currently going through one of their biggest changes since Big Bang. The rise of electronic trading strategies, together with the impact of MiFID and the FSA's rules on unbundling, has changed the way that buy-side firms manage their relationship with the sell-side.

"FIX messaging has become integral to that relationship, enabling a stronger focus on the cost, quality and speed of trading execution. The Exchange's FIX Gateway builds on our long experience of bringing together liquidity pools and provides the market with the genuinely neutral, customer-led FIX messaging service they have told us they want."

The London Stock Exchange's FIX Gateway is a multi-asset trading message service which generates cost-efficiencies by giving the buy-side a single connection to a range of brokers and alternative execution venues. The Gateway is based on the FIX 4.2 global securities transaction messaging protocol, and is vendor-neutral, so that it can be accessed by users of a range of networks and order management systems. The service is open to both UK and international institutions and brokers. Current users include Cheuvreux, Exane BNP Paribas, HSBC and Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking.

The FIX Gateway has been designed to give users maximum control over their trading messages, with content remaining completely confidential. The service enables buy-side users to check that brokers are operational on the system before sending an order. This reduces message failure and limits potential losses. In addition, FIX functionality means that users can filter and audit messages to measure execution quality.

For further information, please contact:

Catherine Mattison Press Office +44 (0)20 7797 1395

newsroom@londonstockexchange.com