The London Stock Exchange is dumping its Tradelect core
trading platform in favour of a system from Sri Lanka-basedMillenniumIT
, Computer Weekly can reveal.
The exchange has been looking to replace Tradelect after
recognising that it is no longer competitive in an increasingly
congested market. It said it could either buy a system or upgrade
the current one.
The stock exchange
announced in June that it will replace Tradelect, which was
introduced two years ago and developed using Microsoft's .net
framework. The project to design, build and implement Tradelect
took four years and cost £40m.
Europe's trading venues use about 20 trading platforms. The
company had a limited
choice of systems to replace for Tradelect if it wanted to
avoid systems used by rival exchanges.
Brian Taylor, managing director of BTA Consulting, told Computer
Weekly last month that if using a competitor's system was a
problem, the London Stock Exchange would have to look further
afield. "If it does not want to use a platform the same as a
competitor, it could buy outside Europe," he said at the time.
MillenniumIT provides trading platforms and other systems for
trading companies.
Bob McDowall, analyst with Towergroup, said it is a surprising
choice. "I would have expected it to go for something with a track
record in Europe."
The London Stock Exchange said it could not comment because it
has "not made a formal decision about Tradelect's replacement".