Barclays’ clients lead charge out of dark pools
THE NUMBER of shares traded in Barclays’ dark pool collapsed by more than half last week, industry data showed yesterday, as clients flee the private trading platform.
The bank is facing allegations in the US that it misled clients trading on the LX platform, leading to a 66 per cent fall in shares traded on the site.
That several bad weeks for the bank – the volume of shares has fallen by 77 per cent since the start of July, according to figures published by self-regulatory group Finra.
Other dark pools have also seen something of an exodus, but on a smaller scale.
Credit Suisse’s trading venue saw a 19 per cent drop in volumes, while shares traded on UBS’s fell by 18 per cent.
Goldman Sachs’ SigmaX dark pool was a 22 per cent crunch in volumes over the same week.
Barclays has until the end of this week to respond to the allegations, which were made in a filing by the New York attorney general last week.
However, the bank may ask for more time if its internal investigations have not found sufficient information by the time of the deadline.