A group of leading securities firms and the Nasdaq Stock Market announced that they will collaborate on a market to trade private securities.

The firms said they will form The PORTAL Alliance, an industry standard facility designed to serve the market for 144A equity securities. It will work with third-party service providers to create an open, industry-standard facility for the private offering, trading, shareholder tracking and settlement of unregistered equity securities sold to qualified institutional buyers.

The founding members of The PORTAL Alliance are Bank of America, Bear Stearns, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Nasdaq, UBS and Wachovia Securities. The collaboration is subject to the execution of a definitive agreement and regulatory approvals.

Alliance participants will contribute the expertise gained in connection with the development of their existing 144A platforms to create an industry standard facility with a uniform set of procedures for issuers and QIBs to bring greater efficiency and transparency to the 144A equity marketplace.

“We are excited to be working with this group of leading securities firms to develop an industry-standard facility to enhance capital formation and liquidity in 144A equity securities,” said Bob Greifeld, CEO of Nasdaq. “Investors and issuers will benefit from a unified facility that includes trading, shareholder tracking, clearance and settlement.”