The TRADE 59 - Q1 2019 | Page 59

[ M A R K E T R E V I E W | E X C H A N G E S ] The new hub? Amsterdam looks to be one of the key benefi- ciaries of Brexit, with firms upping sticks from London to the Dutch capital. Cboe Europe confirmed in July last year that it would be relocating its UK operations to Amster- dam as its future European base of operations, including a MiFID II-compliant equities trading venue and approved publication arrangement (APA) in the city. Approval was granted in mid- March. Other trading venue operators, including Bloomberg, Tradeweb and MarketAxess, have all been granted approval by the Dutch financial regulator to operate venues in Amsterdam in early 2019. Sleeping giant Frankfurt was another city expected to reap the Brexit harvest, yet Europe’s second-largest financial hub has yet to see any significant windfall. Germany’s largest exchange operator, Deutsche Börse, has endured a difficult few years, with its proposed mega-merger with London Stock Exchange falling foul of the EU competition regulator, an insid- er trading scandal that saw previous chief executive Carsten Kengeter step down from the business and falling profits towards the end of last year. Consolidation is now the name of the game for Deutsche Börse, with new helmsman Theodor Weimer, saying that large-scale, transformational mergers were “out of the question” in mid-February, with the group instead focusing on consolidation. Issue 59 // TheTradeNews.com // 59