(Reuters) - Trading firms and employees raised concerns about high-speed traders at Barclays Plc's "dark pool" months before the United States accused the bank of favoring its high-frequency trading clients, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the firms.
New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a lawsuit last month, accusing the Barclays dark pool of giving high-frequency traders an unfair advantage, even though the bank had promised investors they would be protected from "predatory" and "toxic" traders.
The lawsuit alleges that Barclays executed nearly all of its customers' stock orders on its LX Liquidity Cross dark pool alternative trading system instead of on exchanges or other venues that might have offered better prices.
Some big trading firms noticed that their orders weren't getting the best treatment on the dark pool and began to grow concerned that the poor results were due to high-frequency trading, the Journal said.