LONDON: European fund managers, increasingly aware of the risks of trading in anonymous, private venues known as “dark pools”, are pushing for better oversight and security as regulators step up scrutiny of the industry.

This underscores how many investors are unwilling to give up on the potential price and performance advantages of trading anonymously — particularly at a time of renewed financial market volatility — and are instead clubbing together to find alternatives.

One working group created this year, which today represents some 30 investors, including Barings and AXA Investment Management, has advocated urgent change in how dark pools work. The changes would help to ensure certain kinds of high-speed electronic traders are kept at arm’s length and to better police trading.

The group advocates, among other measures, a minimum order size. That acts as a natural barrier to entry for some high-speed trading algorithms, which use orders for small lots to identify interest to try to front-run orders. It also gets closer to the minimum size European regulators plan to impose.

The group worked with the London Stock Exchange on its new dark-pool service for large orders on its Turquoise platform.

“The feeling among the buy-side (investor) community is that dark pools themselves, aside from changes in regulation, urgently need changing,” said James Cooper, the head of execution at Troy Asset Manage­ment, a member of the group.

“We really felt the urgency here to take the opportunity ... to shape a product that would best suit our needs.”

Dozens of dark pools have sprouted up since the 2008 financial crisis. However, the­ir lack of transparency has brought on heightened regulatory scrutiny. Several regulators are investigating dark pool operators, and New Yo­rk’s attorney general is suing Barclays, accusing it of securities fraud for activities related to its dark pool.

Published in Dawn, October 21st , 2014