Lehman Brothers has added Japanese stocks to its platform that offers direct access to so-called dark liquidity pools, the private facilities used to trade shares away from exchanges. The move by Lehman, announced Tuesday, magnifies the challenge to established exchanges.  Rival investment banks, including Goldman Sachs, UBS and Credit Suisse, have their own versions of the platforms operating in Japan. Introduction of the technology in Asia has been slower than in the US and Europe, partly because the markets are more fragmented, with differing regulations, languages and trading specifics. Nevertheless, accessing dark pools is becoming increasingly popular in the region. Lehman plans to launch its LX platform in Asia (ex-Japan) this year, while Goldman Sachs said it “plans to consider” the roll-out of its Sigma-X platform across Asia.

This entry was posted by Gwen Robinson on Tuesday, May 27th, 2008 at 5:29 and is filed under Capital markets. Tagged with Lehman Brothers. Edit this entry.