American Trading Systems Brasil, the company seeking permission to open a financial exchange in Brazil, said talks with global and local banking and asset management firms are at "an advanced stage."

ATS Brasil, as the company is known, is considering the sale of a 24 percent stake to a number of six to eight partners, Chief Executive Officer Alan Gandelman told Reuters in a phone interview. The company is 80 percent owned by Americas Trading Group, a Rio de Janeiro-based trading systems operator, with NYSE owning 20 percent and becoming ATS Brasil's main technology provider.