The International Securities Exchange (ISE), the world’s largest equity exchange, is launching a stock exchange in partnership with several brokerage firms.

The ISE announced that it is entering the equities market through the launch of the ISE Stock Exchange LLC in partnership with broker-dealers and members of the exchange including Bear Stearns, Citadel Derivatives Group, Deutsche Bank, Interactive Brokers Group LLC, J.P. Morgan, Knight Capital Group, Inc. and Sun Trading LLC. The ISE retains majority ownership and the strategic partners have joint ownership interests in the business.

The ISE Stock Exchange will introduce its first product, MidPoint Match, early in the third quarter, subject to regulatory authorization. MPM is a continuous, instantaneous, fully automated, and anonymous matching platform for trading stock. MPM’s matching platform will execute orders at the midpoint price of the National Best Bid and Offer throughout the trading day.

It says this trading platform will match and execute all round lot orders, large and small, and is especially suited for orders generated by algorithms. The MPM will be followed by an integrated displayed market offering in the fourth quarter, subject to regulatory approval.

“The ISE is pleased to announce that we have been joined by our strategic partners in forming the ISE Stock Exchange to deliver a superior market offering for equity executions. We believe that the MidPoint Match for equity executions addresses untapped needs in the market and is an integral component of our strategy to deliver diversified asset classes to investors through the best technology and trading exchange platform in the market,” said David Krell, ISE’s president and CEO.

Krell continued, “We have built a fully electronic exchange from the ground up that will promote competition, foster innovation, improve the overall market and transform the way that equities are traded. In partnership with our strategic partners, we will add value to the equities market and to investors who trade equity instruments. In creating the ISE Stock Exchange, we seek to provide the same level of creative functionalities and customer service in the equities market as we have delivered to date in the options market.”

MPM is a completely anonymous, continuous market open to all members of the ISE and broker-dealers who become members of ISE Stock Exchange. Users can access MPM via their existing trading platforms and protocols.

“ISE Stock Exchange is the first exchange to offer an equities matching platform built specifically to support the electronic trading strategies that define today’s market, but until now, haven’t been open to all market participants in a single arena,” said Thomas Ascher, chief strategy officer of ISE.

“By leveraging our current infrastructure, network connectivity, and technological expertise, as well as our high level of customer service, we believe that MidPoint Match offers a unique and compelling means to trade equities anonymously and at competitive rates. Our 4th quarter addition of a displayed market will be fully integrated with MidPoint Match, further enhancing the ISE Stock Exchange offering,” Ascher concluded.