Savvis is to expand connectivity to Aquis Exchange, the proposed pan-European equities trading exchange and software developer, via Savvis Markets Infrastructure.

Aquis exchange intends to introduce subscription pricing on a similar model to that of the telecoms industry as well as innovative order types.

Currently, over 90% of European equity trading in each individual country takes place on two exchanges, the company said.

The aim of Aquis Exchange is to bring fresh competition into the marketplace in order to lower the trading costs maintained by the existing duopoly.

and is designed to encourage participation from all categories of professional trading firm. Users will be charged according to the message traffic they generate, rather than a percentage of the value of each stock that they trade.
There will be different pricing bands to accommodate varying degrees of usage. There will be a very low usage band for small firms, that are traditionally disadvantaged by the pricing structure of the incumbent exchanges and, at the other end of the pricing structure, will be the top category where usage is unlimited (subject to a fair usage policy).

Aquis Exchange, which has applied for regulatory approval as a multilateral trading facility from the UK FCA, was established in October 2012

Savvis Markets Infrastructure provides network and latency management tools, plus access to more than 200 exchange and liquidity venue feeds, to financial service organizations across the globe.

“In the process of creating the Aquis Exchange infrastructure, we have tried to make the barriers to joining as low as possible for our potential members,” said Alasdair Haynes, chief executive officer of Aquis Exchange. “By having a company with the scale and caliber of Savvis as an authorized extranet supplier, we hope to give users a superior and broad range of connectivity options. We are very pleased to be working with Savvis.”

“We welcome the opportunity to provide clients low-latency connectivity to Aquis Exchange for market data and trading purposes,” said Roji Oommen, managing director, financial services, for Savvis. “By connecting new exchanges and venues to our global network, Savvis continues to expand and enrich the trading ecosystems available to our clients.”