BGI partners with Chi-X

iShares, the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) arm of Barclays Global Investors, is pleased to announce it is the first ETF provider to make its most liquid iShares available for trading on Chi-X Europe:

The first live, order-driven, pan-European Multilateral Trading Facility (MTF), with immediate effect. Chi-X will sit alongside the eight existing exchanges on which iShares can be traded - providing European, including the United Kingdom, ETF investors with the widest range of trading venues of any European ETF provider.

Chi-X Europe's low-cost, streamlined model is designed to help participants achieve ultra-low execution, clearing and settlement costs. Benchmark tests showed the Chi-X Europe operating model to be up to 10 times faster and significantly less expensive than Europe's traditional equity exchanges. Chi-X Europe disseminates market data to clients directly and via third-party market data vendors at no cost, and off-exchange trade reporting is available for a low monthly fee. Chi-X does not charge for services such as order entry, order amendments or order deletions.

Andrea Moressi, head of sales, iShares Europe, said: "We are delighted that Chi-X Europe has chosen iShares, the world's largest provider of ETFs, to offer price discovery in our most liquid ETFs. This development not only demonstrates the tremendous growth and interest in the ETF category, but reflects our continued commitment to clients by providing the widest market coverage of any ETF provider. We look forward to working with Chi-X Europe to offer further iShares as we continue to enhance the client experience."

Peter Randall, CEO, Chi-X Europe, said: "Chi-X Europe's low-latency, high-performance platform facilitates dynamic price updates in line with the underlying index constituents. Quite simply, we believe this will result in tighter spreads. When combined with our rebate model for liquidity providers, we are optimistic that Chi-X Europe can help bring new liquidity to this rapidly growing sector of the market as the system has done for many blue-chip European equities."