Charles River Development clients will be able to access dark pool liquidity in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia following a partnership with BlocSec.
The deal will see Charles River clients use BlocSec to anonymously trade large blocks of Asian equities and efficiently support workflows.
BlocSec, wholly owned by CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets, was created to provide institutional investors with access to execute their Asian trades, minimize transaction costs and market impact. As a dark pool liquidity aggregator, BlocSec helps facilitate trading in the Asian markets.
Cameron Field, managing director of Charles River in Asia-Pacific, said the alliance with BlocSec provides the group's global buy-side clients with another option to easily access Asian liquidity venues. "This alliance is part of our strategy to give clients access to the entire spectrum of trading platforms, including ECNs [electronic communication networks], ATSs [alternative trading systems] and dark pools," Field said.
According to a press statement, BlocSec is the first Asia-based electronic crossing network to provide buy-side and sell-side investors access to a deep pool of anonymous liquidity for exclusive execution of Asian block trades. Its continuous order matching and execution minimizes transaction costs and eliminates information leakage into the market.