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PISCES

Read our latest insights on the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System.

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PISCES, or the Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System, is an innovative framework specifically designed to allow for trading in private company shares.

It forms part of the UK Government’s overall strategy, through its pro-innovation and pro-growth policies, to boost the UK’s financial markets and to ensure that the UK remains competitive within key global financial ecosystems.

PISCES incorporates elements from both public and private markets and aims to:

Support participating companies to scale up and grow
Provide increased liquidity in a cost-effective manner
Assist shareholders (including employees of participating companies) to realise gains

Provide an opportunity to participating companies to rationalise their shareholder base
Provide institutional investors, high net-worth individuals and other sophisticated investors with a platform through which they can invest in the shares of high-return private companies.

Trading on PISCES should be attractive as participating companies can:

Determine the frequency of trading windows
Run trading events which are restricted to approved participants
Set a floor and ceiling price for trades in their shares.

PISCES will initially operate in a five-year sandbox and approved operators (such as the London Stock Exchange plc) will host ‘trading events’ for participating companies where their existing shares can be traded during intermittent trading windows. The FCA is taking a ‘private-plus’ approach to its PISCES rules, rather than using the public market standards as a starting point.