Cboe Global Markets has begun post-Brexit preparations with plans to set up a MiFID II compliant share trading venue in Amsterdam. The Chicago-based exchange group, which last year acquired Bats, Europe’s largest exchange, has chosen to expand to the Dutch capital in order ‘to ensure the company is well positioned to continue to serve its EU customer base after Brexit’ from April 2019.
Mark Hemsley, president of Cboe Europe, says: “We believe the Netherlands is supportive of competitive and open financial market infrastructure, and we feel Amsterdam is a fantastic location to establish our EU venue. We have longstanding and good relations with the AFM and De Nederlandsche Bank, which have a deep understanding of the equities and derivatives markets. Additionally, Amsterdam is a well-known location for us given our ownership stake in pan-European clearing house EuroCCP, which is also based there.”
London’s financial services firms are setting out Brexit strategies as uncertainty remains over the future trade deal between the UK and EU, and it is expected that others will follow Cboe’s move. The exchange group had a 21.2% market share of equity trading in Europe during the first quarter of 2018, which makes it the largest stock exchange operator in the region. Roughly 70% of Cboe’s European trading volume is in EU27 stocks, with the remaining 30% in UK and Swiss equities.
Post Brexit, the $11.6billion group intends to offer similar services in both the UK and EU, including a regulated market, multi-lateral trading facility, an approved publication arrangement and a benchmark administrator. The company will continue to operate its Recognised Investment Exchange (RIE) in the UK. Data centres will also remain the same. The group states: “We plan to continue to utilise our existing data centres, which are located in the London area, to operate our EU trading venue and operations.”
Cboe is headquartered in Chicago and offers trading in multiple asset classes including options, futures, US and European equities, exchange-traded products, global foreign exchange and multi-asset volatility products.
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