SWX Europe sees no bourse demise as rivals abound

By Douwe Miedema

ZURICH (Reuters) - Europe's bourses will ride out the rise of an army of new low-cost rivals, the head of SWX Europe said, though they are facing many of the same challenges as their U.S. counterparts.

The London-based trading platform -- owned by Switzerland's SWX stock exchange operator -- is looking at its next moves to stave off competition after cutting tariffs by 22 percent since the beginning of 2007, the head of the venture said.

"We have a very full execution pipeline, but we are looking carefully at what moves we might make next," Lee Hodgkinson told Reuters in an interview on Wednesday.

"I do think the industry should expect further innovation from SWX Europe. We must be continuously dissatisfied with the status quo," he said.

Rising dissatisfaction from hedge funds with traditional stock exchanges and new European regulation has sparked the birth of an entire generation of alternative trading venues, which are aggressively trying to steal market share.

SWX Europe is setting up a so-called dark pool off-exchange trading service for Swiss blue chips with U.S. broker NYFIX Inc (NYFX.O: Quote, Profile, Research), which provides trading technology.

Preparations for the venture, to start by the middle of the year, were on track, Hodgkinson said.

And SWX Europe, formerly called virt-x, was also ramping up the speed and capacity of its trading systems.  Continued...