Nasdaq, the largest electronic stock market, is expected to announce in the next couple of days that it will set up Nasdaq Europe, a pan-European stock market modeled after its US trading systems.
Alfred Berkeley III, Nasdaq's president, said during a speech Wednesday at the New York Society of Securities Analysts that an announcement concerning the market's European plans is forthcoming. He did not elaborate.
Nasdaq Europe, which will be London-based, would serve as an alternative electronic market for European shares, officials said. They added that Nasdaq Europe would promote itself as a market through which European investors could easily buy American stocks trading on Nasdaq.
Frank Zarb, chairman of the National Association of Securities Dealers, which owns Nasdaq, has already confirmed a report in The Wall Street Journal that the Nasdaq was planning to set up a sibling stock market in Europe. The Journal also reported that Nasdaq was feeling out European securities firms about their willingness to back a pan-European market.
Nasdaq's plan to enter Europe marks the second time that the highly successful, technology-laden stock market is taking its blueprint overseas.
The NASD said in June it would launch a version of its trading system in Japan along with Softbank Corp., a major Japanese technology investor.
Nasdaq Japan is expected to be operating by 2001.
