Liquidnet Inc. announced that Lehman Brothers has become a “streaming liquidity partner”, enabling Liquidnet members to access Lehman’s order flow through Liquidnet H2O, the company’s latest version of its block trading execution system.

In addition to Lehman, Liquidnet’s SLPs include: Bloomberg Tradebook, BNY Brokerage, Instinet, FutureTrade, Miletus Trading, Piper Jaffray, EdgeTrade, UNX, Goldman Sachs Execution & Clearing LP, Credit Suisse, Jefferies, and J.P. Morgan.

Liquidnet H2O provides a venue for buy-side traders that allows them to match size with size through the negotiation system while also allowing smaller-sized order flow from the SLPs to be absorbed at the mid-point of the National Best Bid and Offer thereby eliminating price pressure in the marketplace. SLP orders that interact with Liquidnet H2O are marketable agency orders that are electronically routed by a smart router, with no direction or knowledge from human sales traders. The Liquidnet membership is limited to buy-side institutions only.

“Liquidnet’s members have created the deepest pool of liquidity in the industry. Our partnership with Lehman Brothers benefits our members by further broadening the liquidity they can access, and it benefits Lehman Brothers’ clients by giving them access to the depth of our liquidity pool,” said Seth Merrin, CEO of Liquidnet. “What we are building is a true institutional marketplace where asset managers can execute their large-block orders safely and efficiently, without fear of moving the market or revealing information. Lehman Brothers’ involvement in Liquidnet H2O represents an important partnership in realizing this vision.”

“Partnering with Liquidnet is consistent with our commitment to aggregate and deliver liquidity to our customers from a wide variety of sources. In today’s rapidly evolving market structure environment, innovative new platforms are emerging and redefining how liquidity is accessed,” said Michael Bleich, senior vice president and head of liquidity strategy at Lehman.

“At Lehman Brothers, we are very much focused on delivering to our customers the value-added tools and strategies that meet their growing liquidity requirements. Liquidnet, as a proven innovator in market structure, is a natural partner for us in our effort to source liquidity for our clients,” he added.