IEX Press Release
Streamlining business portfolio while on track for record year in market share, revenue and profit
NEW YORK - September 23, 2019 - IEX today announced that it is exiting the corporate listings business in order to focus on its exchange trading business, as well as the launch of three new technology ventures which revolutionize data access, messaging and transparency. Exiting listings has no impact on the types or number of securities that IEX can trade – IEX already trades over 6,000 National Market System (NMS) stocks and ETFs daily, and has grown to 3% market share, transacting more in notional value than the London Stock Exchange and the Toronto Stock Exchange.
“IEX is on pace for a record setting year in terms of market share, revenue and profits – so some might question why we are exiting any business. But with a thriving trading platform plus the launch of three new technology ventures this year, listings is no longer a business that makes sense for us when considering our strategy and the best use of our time, resources and capital,” said Brad Katsuyama, Co-Founder and CEO of IEX Group.
“Interactive Brokers (IEX: IBKR) Founder and CEO Thomas Peterffy is an industry icon who I have great respect for,” continued Mr. Katsuyama. “And after discussions with him about the future of listings, we jointly made the decision to announce IEX’s exit from the listings business and IBKR’s switch back to Nasdaq. We are extremely grateful that IBKR was our first listing as they were the first retail broker to trade on IEX and will continue to be a leading Member of our exchange.”
Streamlining its businesses enables IEX to focus more resources on its trading product pipeline where the company expects to launch multiple new products in the next twelve months. These new offerings leverage the IEX Signal – patented machine-learning technology which has already benefited over 113 billion shares traded on IEX – and are designed to increase the types of participants and situations protected from predatory trading. As an example, new offerings this fall will be targeted towards corporate and retail participants:
- “Corporate D-Peg” (C-Peg), an enhanced version of IEX’s signature order type D-Peg, is powered by the IEX Signal: predictive analytics designed to protect brokers’ corporate clients from certain types of aggressive trading strategies when buying back their own shares.
- Two new order types designed to provide retail investors greater access to IEX’s unique midpoint liquidity.
2019 has also been a landmark year for IEX’s expansion beyond its stock exchange. IEX is launching three new businesses that leverage its proprietary technology to improve performance, fairness and transparency:
- IEX Cloud: a developer platform designed to democratize access to financial data.
- IEX Astral: a data platform built in collaboration with the world’s largest asset managers to help them store, protect and use their complex trading data.
- IEX Event Stream: a data messaging platform that utilizes IEX’s core technology in areas outside of finance.
“The exchange trading landscape is on the precipice of major change and IEX stands to benefit as investors, brokers and regulators are more focused than ever on performance and transparency. And our team continues to expand with many key hires on both the technology and business side which gives us the talent to take our company to the next level and expand beyond capital markets,” said Mr. Katsuyama. “Our goal is to never become complacent but to disrupt from a position of strength, and IEX has never been in a stronger position both strategically and financially.”
Mr. Katsuyama also published an opinion piece on today’s announcement: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-we-chose-exit-corporate-listings-business-bradley-katsuyama/
IEX will continue to serve as the primary listings exchange for Interactive Brokers (IEX: IBKR) until they switch to Nasdaq on October 7th.
About IEX Group, Inc.
IEX is a technology company committed to raising the bar for performance, fairness and transparency. In 2016, we launched the Investors Exchange, a stock exchange working to protect investors. In just three years, the Investors Exchange has grown to be one of the Top 10 largest exchange operators, globally, by notional value traded. To learn more about the exchange and other IEX businesses visit iextrading.com or search IEX.