Cosy duoplay or a fair fight?

Trading venue heads deliver their cris de couer ahead of TradeTech's return to Paris

Ask the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), BATS Chi-X Europe, Turquoise and recently launched Aquis about the level of exchange competition in European equities, and you`re likely to get a slightly different answer from each one of them.

Alasdair Haynes, CEO of Aquis Exchange, which went live last November, says: "There really isn`t any competition", referring to what he calls a duopoly in European equities between national incumbent exchanges and BATS Chi-X Europe, which gained recognised investment exchange status in May last year.

Mark Helmsley, CEO of BATS Chi-X Europe, on the other hand, says there is considerable competition in European equities trading. He refutes the suggestion that European equities has become a duopoly, asserting that there are three venues competing fiercely for business in larger European markets such as the UK.