Nasdaq buys stake in US Equity Dark Pool, Level ATS
By acquiring a minority stake in Level ATS, Nasdaq joins a number of distinguished owners including Bank of America, Citi, and Fidelity.
Nasdaq has acquired a significant minority stake in LeveL ATS, an independently operated US Equity Dark Pool trading venue.
LeveL ATS was launched in 2006 to provide a continuous crossing platform for seamless trading in a highly stable dark pool environment while minimizing information leakage and market impact.
The alternative trading system has recently launched three proprietary volume-weighted average price (VWAP) order types, VWAP Block, VWAP Slice, and VWAP Full Day.
By acquiring a minority stake in Level ATS, Nasdaq joins a number of distinguished owners including Bank of America, Citi, and Fidelity.
Tal Cohen, Executive Vice President and Head of North American Markets at Nasdaq, said: “As one of the most innovative and well recognized broker-neutral trading platforms across US equities, LeveL has demonstrated the ability to consistently meet the evolving needs of investors and serve as an important source of liquidity for its members. We are pleased to join several leading sell-side firms to build on LeveL’s suite of products and current market position.”
Whit Conary, Chief Executive Officer at LeveL ATS, commented: “In a rapidly changing market landscape, our independent operating model has given us the ability to scale and expand our product and service offerings. Having Nasdaq onboard provides us with an even greater runway for future growth, innovation, and enhanced client experience.”
Nasdaq has recently launched ESG Data Hub as its latest expansion of Nasdaq’s growing suite of products aiming to support investors in their sustainable investment decisions.
The hub connects investors with expert-led ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) data sets from leading providers across a wide spectrum of areas, including gender diversity, carbon emissions, and climate risk, providing detailed and tangible intelligence on companies’ ESG profiles.
The platform provides consolidated access to information through a single interface. To support transparency and global comparability, all data available in the platform is connected to the Sustainable Development Goals set out by the United Nations. To optimize data quality, Nasdaq has worked with industry leaders within a wide range of categories across the ESG scope.
Data partners include Equileap (Gender equality), Ecogain (Biodiversity), RepRisk (Reputational risk), Munich Re (Climate risk), Inrate (Carbon emissions), Upright Project (Net impact) and Clean Tech (Renewable technology).
The exchange operator has recently acquired Verafin, an anti-financial crime management solutions provider. This will help the global financial technology company to expand its existing RegTech solutions, which will be offered to a global ecosystem of Tier-1 and Tier-2 banks and broker-dealers.
Verafin’s capabilities will be available to the global network of nearly 250 banks, exchanges, broker-dealers and buy-side organizations, and regulatory authorities that already rely on Nasdaq’s technology to detect market manipulation and abuse.
