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Euro Millennium is a European offshoot of the Millennium darkpool that has been operated in the US by Nyfix, a technology company, since 2002.
Trades are cleared by Nyfix, which has broker-dealer status, and settled locally on a pan-European basis by BNP Paribas.
It offers anonymous crossing of orders either at the mid-point of the bid-offer spread, at a specified price or within a range, to allow for higher fill rates.
Unlike some other crossing networks, the Millennium systems are truly neutral. “A very important difference is the neutrality of our service,” says Chris Smith, head of Euro Millennium. “Some systems are either developed by or for a particular segment of the market like brokers or investment managers, but Euro Millennium is totally neutral. This means that we are open to liquidity wherever we can find it and that we are prepared to onward route any orders that don’t get filled to wherever our clients choose.
It also means that we enable clients to interact with us however they like, so there are no minimum order sizes and we allow algorithms.”