Bats Europe, a wholly owned subsidiary of BATS Global Markets, has announced it will launch its dark pool, the first with maker-taker pricing in Europe, on 7 August. The multilateral trading facility (MTF) will rebate 0.1 basis points to participants that add liquidity and charge 0.25 basis points to remove liquidity in the dark pool.

Following the satisfactory conclusion of discussions with the Financial Services Authority, BATS Europe’s dark pool will be available for participant testing on 20 July.

“We are pleased with the progress of BATS Europe’s unique dark pool offering and look forward to going live in August,” says BATS Europe CEO Mark Hemsley. “Participants will be able to receive rebates on posted liquidity and enjoy low rates for removing liquidity, consistent with our approach of offering first class markets with aggressive fee structures.”

The new dark pool is separate from BATS Europe’s current integrated book, which combines visible and hidden order types. BATS Europe participants can send orders to the dark pool using existing FIX handlers with orders hidden and executed at the midpoint of the best bid and offer on the primary market.

A range of features for orders, such as setting a minimum execution quantity, are included in BATS Europe’s dark pool offering.

The BATS Europe FIX specification now includes dark pool instructions.