Provable Markets has secured US regulatory approval to launch its alternative trading system, a crucial step for the nascent New York-based fintech firm.

Provable Markets said on Wednesday it has been approved as a new member broker-dealer by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), the US regulator of brokers.

Under the ruling, Provable Markets has secured permission to launch its alternative trading system (ATS) called Aurora.

This approval effectively gives Provable Markets the green light to file a Form ATS with the Securities and Exchange Commission, which is the last step of regulatory approval required to launch an ATS. Provable Markets said on Wednesday it has now filed this form with the US securities regulator.

Matt Cohen, the co-founder and chief executive of Provable Markets, said on Wednesday: “As Provable Markets continues to thoughtfully and deliberately execute on the near and long term plans it set out a little under a year ago, we would be remiss if we did not emphasize the importance in reaching this milestone.”

Cohen, a former trader with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Jefferies and Nomura, added: “As we have stated many times, we believe that thoughtful solutions for the markets and regulation are not diametrically opposed, and we are excited about this development's impact on our ability to provide meaningful and lasting improvements for all participants.”

Provable Markets plans to leverage new technology to deliver efficiencies in the underserved securities finance market.

The Aurora ATS seeks to offer clients more sophisticated tools for trading and optimising collateral through pragmatic digital workflows to engage in securities lending, complex option block trades and security-based swaps.

The fintech first emerged in July 2021 as an Approved Submitter for the proposed Securities Finance Transaction (SFT) Clearing Service being developed by US post-trade giant the Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation.

Provable Markets, one of two approved SFT submitters for the impending clearing service, appointed in August Halima Butt, formerly of Euronext, as its head of strategy and sales.