UPDATE 1-New mart ELX announces first connectivity vendor
(Adds RTS as first partner, details)
BOCA RATON, Fla, March 12 (Reuters) - Upstart futures exchange ELX Electronic Liquidity Exchange announced steps on Wednesday to distribute its product to a range of market participants, including naming the first software vendor that will provide connectivity.
ELX is an electronic futures mart formed in December by a consortium of about a dozen financial institutions that aims to pull derivatives business away from the dominant CME Group CME.N.
The exchange, which unveiled its name on Tuesday at the Futures Industry Association meeting here after going by the working name "Four Seasons" until now, has yet to name a chief executive officer.
ELX said its software vendor program would help to build deep liquidity for the exchange's contracts, the first of which is expected to be futures on U.S. Treasury debt, competing directly with CME's Chicago Board of Trade division.
Realtime Global Systems Group (RTS) was named late on Wednesday as the first in what ELX expects will be a string of vendors hooking traders up with the exchange.
Based in Frankfurt, RTS currently connects users to more than 85 exchanges and liquidity pools worldwide.
Officials with trading software developer Trading Technologies said the Chicago-based firm has had preliminary talks with ELX on providing connectivity to the new mart.
The companies which have invested in ELX so far, include: JPMorgan (JPM.N), Merrill Lynch & Co MER.N, Chicago hedge fund Citadel Investment Group, eSpeed Inc ESPD.O, Bank of America (BAC.N),Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Barclays Plc (BARC.L), Citigroup Inc (C.N), Deutsche Bank AG (DBKGn.DE), GETCO LLC, PEAK6 and Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc (RBS.L), according to a statement. (Reporting by Ros Krasny; editing by Carol Bishopric)
