Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 10, 2025
3 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
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The UK's PISCES platform will allow private share trading, aiming to boost capital markets. Launching this year, it offers an alternative to public offerings.
By Tommy Reggiori Wilkes
LONDON (Reuters) -Trading on Britain's new share platform for private companies can begin later this year, the financial watchdog said on Tuesday, after finalising rules for a market that regulators and the government hope will bolster the country's capital markets.
The Private Intermittent Securities and Capital Exchange System (PISCES) will enable trading of shares in private companies. The first shares should be traded on the platform this year through a "sandbox", which allows regulators to test how it works before they finalise a permanent regime in 2030, the Financial Conduct Authority said.
PISCES is designed to connect owners of fledgling unlisted companies who want to sell shares in their businesses with new investors keen to help those firms grow and scale up.
"The new platforms will give investors greater access and confidence to invest in exciting new companies, while early backers and employees can sell up and invest again," Simon Walls, the FCA's executive director of markets, said in a statement.
Emma Reynolds, the government's economic secretary to the Treasury, welcomed the announcement and said PISCES would boost UK capital markets and support economic growth.
Operators such as the London Stock Exchange wishing to run a PISCES platform will have to apply to the FCA. Once approved, they will be able to run intermittent trading events, at which company owners can offer stock for sale at regular intervals, at prices they set, to new shareholders.
PISCES could help small companies with limited experience of capital markets get on the radar of cash-rich and supportive investors, without undertaking a full-scale initial public offering.
The concept of PISCES, however, has proven a tough sell in some parts of the UK industry. Bankers told Reuters this year that they fear hits to revenues and ultimately being bypassed in a booming market for private capital.
Jack Shepherd, a partner with law firm CMS, said PISCES was an innovative attempt to revive the UK's capital markets.
"But the question remains whether PISCES addresses a genuine problem in the market, without cannibalising companies that might otherwise have sought a listing on the Main Market or AIM," Shepherd said, referring to Britain's small-cap market.
In response to feedback, the FCA said that, under its finalised rules it would, among other things, apply a 25% threshold for identifying major shareholders, reduce the disclosure requirements for PISCES operators and companies, and give companies greater say over who can invest in them.
(Reporting by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes; Editing by Bernadette Baum and Hugh Lawson)
PISCES is designed to connect owners of fledgling unlisted companies with new investors, enabling them to sell shares and help those firms grow.
Operators such as the London Stock Exchange must apply to the FCA to run a PISCES platform and conduct intermittent trading events.
The platform aims to give investors greater access and confidence to invest in new companies, while allowing early backers to sell shares and reinvest.
Some bankers fear that PISCES could impact their revenues and bypass traditional methods of capital raising, such as initial public offerings.
The FCA finalized rules including a 25% threshold for identifying major shareholders and reduced disclosure requirements for companies using the platform.
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