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Successful Launch of London FX Matching Engine

London, UK - Hotspot, a leading institutional foreign exchange (FX) market owned and operated by BATS Global Markets (BATS), today announced the successful launch of its new London-area matching engine on 14 September with $1.2bn traded (single-count) in the first full week of operation.

The new venue will target Europe and Asia and specific FX currency pairs that dominate the European and Asian trading hours. To incentivise customers, all trading for all transactions that take place on the London matching engine will be free until the end of the year.

Chris Concannon, BATS CEO said: “Exactly six months after acquiring Hotspot, we have demonstrated our commitment to injecting very real competition into the FX trading market by opening the London matching engine. In the same way we disrupted European equities trading when we launched in the region in 2008, we plan to permanently change the landscape of the FX market. We are only at the start of this campaign, and customers are already responding very well.”

He added: “That we can launch an entirely new venue in such a short timeframe speaks to the incredible strength of our global technology team under Chris Isaacson, our global CIO. His teams continue to set the bar for operational excellence and efficiency in all the markets we touch.”

Hotspot will continue to operate its matching engine in the New York area, which is scheduled to migrate from its current site in Jersey City, New Jersey to the Equinix NY5 data centre in Secaucus, New Jersey on 9 November 2015.

In addition to Hotspot, BATS operates Europe’s #1 stock market and trade reporting facility; the second largest U.S. stock market; the largest ETF market globally; and the fastest-growing U.S. options market. BATS executed notional volume of $129.3 billion per day across all of its platforms in August 2015.*

*Source: BATS Global Markets data

About BATS Global Markets, Inc.

BATS Global Markets, Inc., a leading global operator of exchanges and services for financial markets, is committed to Making Markets Better for traders, investors and issuers. In Europe, BATS operates the largest pan-European equities exchange, offering trading and listing services across 15 major European markets, as well as BXTR, the continent’s largest trade reporting facility. In the U.S., BATS operates four stock exchanges – BZX, BYX, EDGX and EDGA – and regularly ranks as the top market for ETF and retail-driven liquidity. The company is a listing venue for ETFs and other structured products, also operates a U.S. equity options market, BATS BZX Options, and is launching BATS EDGX Options later in 2015. Globally, BATS serves the foreign exchange market, the world’s largest asset class, with Hotspot, a leading institutional spot foreign exchange market. With its world-class technology and relentless customer focus, BATS strives to bring efficiency, transparency and fairness to market participants. The company is headquartered in Kansas City with offices in New York, London, Chicago and Singapore.

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