Is Scott DeSano finally getting his wish? Although the former head of Fidelity's equity trading was moved to another area in July, his pursuit of rock-bottom trading costs lives on in the form of a long-championed electronic exchange.

Fidelity has teamed with a consortium of Wall Street firms and the Boston Stock Exchange to form a new electronic equities exchange. Fidelity, Citigroup, CSFB and Lehman Brothers are all providing equity to create the Boston Equities Exchange (BeX), which will be owned and operated by the BSX Group LLC.

"The creation of the BeX will provide greater choice and competition among markets, which is vital to keeping trading costs low and ensuring quality executions. This is in the best interests of our clients," said Mark Haggerty, executive vice president of Fidelity brokerage, in a statement.

Officials expect the first phase of the new exchange to be ready by 2006. Work on the exchange will take place over the next 12 to 15 months. The Boston Stock Exchange and the SEC will oversee the BeX.

According to Bloomberg, a 2004 Fidelity study showed that NYSE trades for less than 10,000 shares cost almost $0.9 higher than a comparable trade at an electronic market.

DeSano called on the NYSE to use electronic trading, as well was privately lobbied the SEC, according to a 2004 Wall Street Journal article about DeSano's cost-cutting techniques.

As head of Fidelity's equity trading, DeSano overhauled Fidelity's trading by tracking and rewarding the firm's most efficient traders, analyzing volume-weighted average price and splitting trades to mask movements. 

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