After
the disappointing outcome over Plus Markets, various factions are
coming out and poking fun at Turquoise. Unlike BOAT, Turquoise has
little to show for its efforts so far, and are still looking for a
Chief Executive. What happened?
The big difference for me is that BOAT has strong partners led by the Markit team, who were selected way back in January. As a result, they're ready for launch.
Meanwhile, Turquoise has been delayed and delayed, with launch pushed back to summer 2008 (about the same time as Project Smartpool
announced today) because they haven't been able to select the core
platform. Actually, not quite true. They did select the core
technology platform, OMX, in June but couldn't get it delivered in time due to contractual negotiations.
To circumvent all of this, Turquoise then made the bid for Plus Markets earlier this month, which would gain them not only OMX but a Chief Executive, Simon Brickles.
According
to the reports, the reverse takeover fell apart because of an argument
over whether the choice should be OMX or Cinnober. Alternatively, it's
because Simon didn't want to have the title "CEO of the failed
Turquoise Exchange" on his CV (and who does?). Alternatively,
it's because one of the US banks in the syndicate didn't like the cut
of his cloth and wanted their own man to lead the team.
Either way, it's about as interesting as whether England scored a try against South Africa in the Rugby World Cup or not (they did, but the video referee wasn't wearing his glasses fyi), as in the discussion is over and the decision was made whether it's the right or the wrong one.
The
real winners are the survivors ready for next week's launch of MiFID.
And they are ... the London Stock Exchange, Euronext and the Deutsche
Bourse ... oh yes, and Chi-x.
Well done folks, you're
MiFID-ready. That doesn't mean you're MiFID-compliant or
MiFID-preferred by the way, but at least you're in production,
available and I can trade with you.
Meanwhile, should Project Turquoise be renamed Project Red, as in Red with embarrassment?
Don't
bet on it, as last week the consortia seemed to be saying that they
would shortly announce both a technology provider and a Chief
Executive. I'll be watching that space with interest ...
... funnily enough, later the same day and meantime, in another part of the city ...
Turquoise announced later on today that Eli Lederman of Morgan Stanley will be CEO. Checkout my future of trading
transcript for more on Eli. And, shock-horror, Cinnober will be the
technology rather than OMX. Funnily enough, Cinnober is the same
technology platform that BOAT uses. Small world isn't it?
Chris M Skinner
Chris Skinner is best known as an independent commentator on the financial markets through his blog, TheFinanser.com, as author of the bestselling book Digital Bank, and Chair of the European networking forum the Financial Services Club. He has been voted one of the most influential people in banking by The Financial Brand (as well as one of the best blogs), a FinTech Titan (Next Bank), one of the Fintech Leaders you need to follow (City AM, Deluxe and Jax Finance), as well as one of the Top 40 most influential people in financial technology by the Wall Street Journal's Financial News. To learn more click here...
