By Huw Jones
LONDON (Reuters) – Chicago-based Cboe said on Thursday it would launch its delayed equity derivatives trading hub in Amsterdam in September, the latest move by financial markets to base their European footprint in the Dutch capital after Brexit.
Cboe, already one of the biggest pan-European share trading platforms with operations in London and Amsterdam, said ABN AMRO Clearing, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley had signed up to participate.
Cboe’s in-house clearing arm, Amsterdam-based EuroCCP, will clear the equity derivatives trades.
“We have listened to the needs of market participants and are designing this new market from a pan-European point-of-view,” said David Howson, Cboe’s president for Europe and Asia Pacific at Cboe Global Markets.
The venture, which had been due to launch in the first half of this year, will initially offer trading in futures and options based on six Cboe Europe indices that cover top euro zone shares, and top British, Dutch, Swiss, German and French shares.
Cboe’s decision is a further boost to Amsterdam, which became Europe’s biggest share trading centre in January after trading in euro shares moved there from London.
Euro swaps trading has also moved from London to Amsterdam, with trading in carbon emissions due to follow.
Cboe faces tough competition from long-established rivals such as Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex and Euronext, but hopes to grow the market overall in a region where futures and options are largely traded along national lines.
The exchange seeks to apply its long experience in U.S. futures and options trading out of Chicago to develop a European market with more of a U.S. approach.
(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Edmund Blair)
