(March 21 – 10:45 ET) – Belzberg Technologies is announcing the creation of an Electronic Communications Network for options.

The Options ECN will provide a single point of universal access to all major options exchanges simultaneously. Orders on the Belzberg ECN will be routed to options exchanges, including the Chicago Board Options Exchange, the American Exchange and the Montreal Exchange and will feature a transparent order book for options, resulting in improved pricing.

The firm says its Options ECN will operate on a transaction fee model through its wholly owned broker dealer subsidiary, Electronic Brokerage Systems, and a group of seven CBOE floor brokers who average 3% of the CBOE’s volume. This order flow will now have the ability to go through Belzberg’s fully electronic system. In addition to this client base, Belzberg is rolling out the product to its clients in over 80 financial institutions.

“We are making available to options traders something that equities traders have long taken for granted – fast trades, executed at the best price regardless of the exchange, with a fully disclosed market book” said Sid Belzberg, president and CEO of Belzberg Technologies.

“We have successfully completed Options trades on our ECN and had the trades printed on the CBOE. As we roll out our new ECN over the next two months, traders will be able to have their orders executed more reliably and faster than with the traditional ways of options execution. It is our intention to afford traders, using the Belzberg System, timely execution at the best available price.”

The firm says that the deployment of the first U.S. Options ECN gives it a significant first mover advantage and is expected to have a positive impact on its sales for 2001 and beyond.