Banks Unite On Trading Platform

Date: Monday, July 23, 2007
Author: Financial Times

FT reports: Merrill Lynch, Lehman Brothers, Morgan Stanley and Citigroup are among a group of investment banks developing an electronic trading platform for unregistered US securities that will compete with existing systems, such as one created by Goldman Sachs.

This comes after Goldman signed up Oaktree Capital, the hedge fund group, and Apollo Management, the private equity firm, to sell unregistered shares through its GSTrUE private trading system. The Apollo shares will also trade over an electronic platform created by JPMorgan Chase. The system being developed by the group of banks is intended to ensure that Goldman, JPMorgan or others do not come to dominate the electronic market for unregistered shares, people close to the matter said.