FACTBOX: New trading venues in Europe

LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union's markets in financial instruments directive (MiFID), which came into force in November 2007, is set to alter the exchange landscape dramatically as low-cost trading platforms emerge.

Here are the key new pan-European trading ventures that stand to challenge the monopolies of European stock exchanges:

Chi-X Europe

-- Launched in October 2006, the first live, pan-European equity multilateral trading facility (MTF) aims to take on the three major European exchanges with its faster and cheaper trading engine. It has gained some 13 percent of FTSE blue-chips by paying for liquidity -- paying 0.2 basis points for order that add liquidity and charging 0.3 basis points for orders that remove liquidity.

Chi-X Europe, owned by Nomura Holdings' (8604.T) broker agency Instinet and some 14 financial institutions, trades component stocks of the FTSE 100 .FTSE, AEX 25 .AEX, DAX 30 GDAXI, CAC 40 .FCHI, SMI 20 .SSMI and OMX Stockholm 30 .OMXS30. It aims to have 25 percent of the London market share a year from now.

It also expects to have 15 percent of Germany's Dax, Amsterdam's AEX and France's CAC 40.

Euro-Millennium

-- U.S. broker Nyfix launched the third dark-pool (anonymous) equities-trading platform Euro-Millennium in March 2008.

It counts investment banks BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA), Citi (C.N), Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), JPMorgan (JPM.N), Merrill Lynch MER.N and UBS (UBSN.VX), as well as fund houses Allianz, Baring, CA Cheuvreus, DWS, Insight, Resolution and Schroder as members of its advisory board.

Dark pools allow banks and institutional investors to execute big orders anonymously to limit market impact. U.S. broker Investment Technology Group Inc, (ITG.N) launched dark pool Posit in 1998 and Liquidnet started its services in Europe in November 2002.

Turquoise

-- The cash equities venture, which was announced in November 2006, aims to get rolling in September this year. It is backed by Citi, Goldman Sachs (GS.N), Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley (MS.N), UBS, Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE).

It has indicated that it will offer trading at less than half the price of its cheapest rival and less than a tenth compared with other European markets.

It targets a 5 percent market share within the first few months after launch.

Nasdaq OMX

-- The new pan-European market, which is set to open in September, will trade about 300 of the region's most actively traded stocks.

It will be the first trading platform to route to other trading venues to offer a better price exists elsewhere.

Project Smart Pool

-- NYSE Euronext (NYX.N) (NYX.PA) announced the first alternative trading venture designed for large blocks of shares by a European exchange in October 2007. The trading venture will allow users to trade without disclosing their identity or the size or price.

The system, being developed in partnership with BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) and HSBC (HSBA.L) (0005.HK), is set to be launched by June.

BATS Europe

-- The U.S.-based trading system, which is backed by 11 investors including Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank (DBKGn.DE), JPMorgan, Lehman Brothers LEH.N, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch, plans to launch its European platform this year.

It has grabbed 10 percent of U.S. equities markets only two year after it started in January 2006.

Liquidnet Europe

-- The platform, which supports trading among fund managers, went live in November 2002 as the first buyside dark pool trading venue.

Its trading volume nearly tripled to $24.4 billion from a year ago.

SWX Europe

-- Swiss Exchange bought electronic trading platform Virt-x in late 2002 and later renamed it SWX Europe. It offers trading of some 300 top blue-chips in Europe.

ITG Posit Europe

-- Agency-broker ITG launched Posit in Europe in 1998.

(Reporting by Daisy Ku; Editing by Louise Ireland)