LSE wins approval for Baikal
Baikal, the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) new pan-European multi-lateral trading facility (MTF) dark pool service, has won regulatory approval from the Financial Services Authority. Dark pools allow large blocks of shares to be executed more easily than on the normal order book of an exchange, where trading is increasingly dominated by much smaller orders. The Baikal roll-out will begin this week. LSE chief executive Xavier Rolet said: “In line with our ambitious launch timetable, we have delivered the first part of Baikal’s solution for aggregating liquidity and solving the challenges of market fragmentation.”