The two large European exchanges, which have over the past year announced plans to to launch "dark pool" projects, are facing increasing pressure from Deutsche Börse, the German exchange group, which revealed surprise plans this morning for a new trading service to be launched on Monday.
Deutsche Börse had previously held firm as rivals the London Stock Exchange and NYSE Euronext unveiled "dark pool" projects over the past year. However, today it said it was intending to launch on Monday Xetra MidPoint, a new trading service for large, or block, orders.