Equiduct Welcomes Banca Akros as Direct Exchange Member and New Agency Broker on Apex

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Italy's Leading Retail Aggregator is Latest Member to Join the Pan-European Exchange Specialised in Delivering Best Execution to Retail Brokers.

MILAN, Dec. 17, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Equiduct, the retail-focused pan-European exchange, announced today that Banca Akros is the newest direct member to join its Best Execution service, Apex.

Banca Akros is the Investment Bank of Banco BPM Group. Point of reference for Mid Corporate and Financial Institutions clients for over 25 years, Banca Akros offers transparent products and financial services, aimed at satisfying the various needs of customers in terms of access to capital markets, financial risks and extraordinary finance management, also cross-border.

By joining Equiduct as a direct member, Banca Akros now has access to commission-free Best Execution across 12 European markets, substantially increasing the competitiveness of its retail best execution service and improving execution quality with better prices and additional liquidity offered by Equiduct.

Equiduct continues to be fully committed to working alongside the Italian retail brokerage community to ensure that an ever-growing number of individual investors receive the best possible execution for their transactions in Italian & European equities and ETFs.  

Giuseppe Puccio, General Manager at Banca Akros said: "Joining Equiduct's Apex service enhances our ability to deliver best execution for our clients. This improvement applies both in terms of market variety and competitive pricing. Furthermore, the access to the Apex platform is consistent with Sabe equity, our proprietary automatic dynamic Best Execution system designed for trading European equity. In other terms, the collaboration with Equiduct adds significant value to our overall offering for accessing international equity markets. It reaffirms Banca Akros' commitment to providing innovative services, both independently and through strategic partnerships".

Wail Azizi, Chief Strategy Officer at Equiduct, said: "We are pleased to welcome Banca Akros as a direct exchange member. The inclusion of Apex in their newly overhauled best execution service will help Banca Akros, and their clients improve end-investors execution quality, while significantly reducing their overall costs for both their Italian and their Pan-EU executions. Banca Akros is one of Italy's leading retail aggregators and a true pioneer in execution innovation in Italy. Congratulations to Giuseppe and the entire Banca Akros teams on the smooth delivery of their groundbreaking new Best Execution capabilities of which Apex is now part of."

Notes to editors

About Equiduct:
Equiduct is an innovative, client driven pan-European exchange enabling retail brokers and institutional clients to achieve Best Execution in the most liquid and fragmented stocks and ETFs across 12markets covering 16 European headline indices. Equiduct is a market segment of Börse Berlin, a regulated market operator under Article 44 of MiFID II. Börse Berlin is regulated by the Competent Authority Senatsverwaltung für Wirtschaft, Energie und Betriebe – Börsenaufsichtsbehörde and participation in trading is governed by German and European law. In 2023 it reported a turnover of €79bn and an overall ADV (average daily volume) of €310m.

About Banca Akros: 
Banca Akros, established in 1997 and headquartered in Milan, Italy, is a prominent investment bank and a subsidiary of Banco BPM. The bank offers a comprehensive range of services, including investment banking, brokerage, and research, catering to corporate clients, financial institutions, and professional investors. Banca Akros specializes in areas such as mergers and acquisitions (M&A), equity and debt capital markets, and structured finance solutions. In 2021, it expanded its international reach by acquiring Oaklins Italy, enhancing its capabilities in cross-border transactions. The bank is recognized for its expertise in the Italian financial market and its commitment to providing tailored financial solutions to meet the diverse needs of its clients.