Chi-X Australia Pty. Limited has announced that the firm is a step closer to delivering on its commitment to introduce faster, cheaper and smarter equities trading for the Australian market later this year, with the expansion of its business development unit.

The company on Tuesday appointed Mike Aikins as Chief Technology Officer and Andrew Walton as Business Development Manager. Ronald Gould, CEO of Chi-X Asia-Pacific, welcomed Aikins and Walton to the team.

"Having secured in-principle approval for an Australian market licence, Chi-X Australia intends to launch a low cost, high speed, intelligent trading platform that is based on a model that has captured support from both investors and regulators by providing lower trading costs, increased overall market liquidity, and thus, improved trade execution quality for investors," said Mr. Gould.

With over 15 years of experience in the capital markets and previous work with trading platforms, Mr. Aikins brings a specific focus on the design, development, deployment and operation of market centre technology to the Chi-X Australia team. His previous roles include Head of Telecommunications, CTO and Lead Architect for the ASX, and CTO and Managing Director of the Centre for Securities Industry Strategy.

Walton joins Chi-X Australia with over 10 years of project management experience in both the IT and business development aspects of trading systems, including roles at UBS, BNP Paribas and the ASX. Walton will initially focus on the onboarding and client connectivity process in the lead up to Chi-X Australia's launch.

Gould continued: "Given their skills and experience, we felt Mike and Andrew were the obvious choices to help us bring the Chi-X Global model to the Australian market. We continue to actively and positively engage with the Australian trading community and Mike and Andrew's appointments will significantly deepen this engagement."