Banks to Share Platform for 144a Trades

By Lynn Cowen

A dozen Wall Street firms have decided to drop their competing trading systems for the unregistered securities known as 144a offerings and cooperate on a single platform operated by Nasdaq Stock Market Inc.

The decision, expected to be announced today, will revamp Nasdaq's Portal system, using some of the technology the investment banks have incorporated in their own systems. The result of nearly two months of negotiations, the new trading platform should be operational in the first quarter.

Read more of this 11.12.07 Wall Street Journal article.