KEY POINTS:
LONDON - Seven of the world's biggest investment banks will lay down the gauntlet to Europe's stock exchanges by announcing an agreement as early as today to create their own pan-European share trading platform.
The platform will initially offer trading in Europe's biggest stocks, with the aim of substantially cutting the cost of buying and selling shares.
The seven - Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS - will be shareholders in the company that owns the platform. They are planning to have the platform running next year.
In addition to the seven, the company will aim to attract business from other brokers who will be able to use the system on an equal footing with the founders.
The platform is being established in response to the European Union's Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) which aims to create a single market in financial services and facilitate cross-border trading in the continent's biggest stocks.
MiFID will be implemented in November 2007.
One source said: "If I was [London Stock Exchange chief executive] Clara Furse right now, I'd be quaking in my boots.
"We think this will provide a serious challenge to the existing exchanges."
- INDEPENDENT
