Bats Europe has told Reuters that it is considering setting up a headquarters outside of London following the UK's decision to leave the EU, with Dublin a frontrunner when it comes to the new location.
Bats, which is Europe's biggest stock exchange with 24% of daily trading, is concerned that the City of London will become economically isolated from the rest of Europe following the June referendum.
If the UK is cut out of the single European market, it intends to start working on establishing a second base next year.
Bats Europe Chief Executive Mark Hemsley sees a move across the Irish Sea as distinctly possible, saying:
"If I look at the current scenarios, the only one that does give certainty to your customers is to actually have an entity within an EU country.
"Until we see a path that tells us otherwise, that will be the most likely outcome at the moment."
"We are looking at the underlying legal framework of a country and Ireland is quite attractive because it's the most similar to the UK structure.
"We look at local tax environments, labour laws, availability of personnel. We are open minded, but Dublin is attractive on a number of those levels."
Hemsley continued that, while he predicts that London will remain a major financial hub, the most likely outcomes to Britain's new trade negotiations with the EU would all bring problems of their own.
Potential options include joining the European Economic Area with Norway, signing up to the kind of bilateral arrangements the likes of Switzerland and Canada have in place, or simply relying on World Trade Organisation rules.
