While Singapore's attempt at the first exchange-backed dark pool came to naught, the London Stock Exchange has proved traditional bourses and dark pools can indeed work together.
While Chi-East, the dark pool owned by the Singapore Exchange and Chi-X Global, folds this week, the London Stock Exchange has been successfully running its own dark-pool platform for institutional investors for four years.
London Stock Exchange chief executive Xavier Rolet said that these two type of markets could complement each other. Unlike Hong Kong Exchanges and Clearing chairman Ronald Arculli, who is lobbying to tighten regulation on dark pools, Rolet says the London exchange's dark pool has benefited it.
'I do not see any conflict. They provide more choices for our investors. They are both very successful and are not in competition. The dark pool allows institutional investors to trade large blocks in an efficient way,' Rolet said.
Other independent dark-pool operators also said their businesses had not been affected by the poor global market sentiment.
Lee Porter, head of Asia Pacific at Liquidnet, the largest pool operator in Asia, said: 'Dark pools like Liquidnet have become a mainstay in Asia and are part of an institutional trader's toolkit, as they have proven essential in sourcing liquidity in an anonymous, secure environment.'