Easdaq, the pan-European growth equities exchange, has bought Liquidity, a secure extranet designed by UK network service provider IXNet.

The extranet – essentially a private internet – will supply all network capabilities for Easdaq's pan-European trading platform, which was developed by Tibco Finance Technology. It will deliver secure voice and data communication with financial content and transactional capabilities to Easdaq's 43 members. IXNet will also supplement Easdaq's technical help-desk. Tony Preece, executive vice-president for market operations at Easdaq, said: "The fact that we have a network in place to manage trading from institution to institution leaves Easdaq free to concentrate on furthering trading in the European time zone.' Liquidity ends the reliance on disparate public networks such as telecommunications providers or internet service providers. As a subsidiary of IPC, which has more than half the market share for dealerboards in the US, the name has considerable clout. Peter Hase, IXNet managing director, said that data such as Reuters or Bloomberg feeds can be sent directly through the extranet system, eliminating the need to install a dedicated terminal and that these benefits can be passed on to Easdaq's members. "It is a challenge to educate the market and move them away from using the communications lines they are used to, to using an internet protocol over an extranet,' said Hayes.