Several major UK based European equities exchanges will re-list Swiss securities from 4 February following the Swiss financial market supervisory authority’s (FINMA) recognition of UK based trading venues.
FINMA has added Aquis Exchange, Cboe Global Markets, and the London Stock Exchange Group’s (LSEG) venue Turquoise to its list of recognised foreign trading venues, marking the removal of the final obstacle between UK venues and the trading of Swiss securities.
“This will bring back competition, choice, and a full range of execution mechanisms to one of the region’s biggest equity markets, greatly benefitting our participants, as well as end investors,” said David Howson, president of Cboe Europe.
The move means that over 200 previously removed Swiss listed securities will re-enter the stock universe for UK based exchanges, after the EU decided not to renew Swiss equivalence on 30 June 2019.
“We are very pleased to be able to offer Swiss stocks to Aquis members again after an 18-month hiatus. Switzerland is an important European market and our members want a choice when deciding where to trade,” said Alasdair Haynes, chief executive of the Aquis Exchange.
Alongside FINMA’s recognition, the SIX Swiss Stock Exchange also made an announcement in support of the binding of the two nations outside of the European Union.
“SIX welcomes this move. We’ve always supported open and international capital markets and it’s in the interests of national and international investors,” said Thomas Wellauer, chairman of the board at SIX. “The mutual recognition of equivalence will permit a healthy exchange and competition between the major financial centres in Switzerland and the UK.”
The UK and Switzerland came to an agreement on exchange equivalence on 28 January after Brexit left the UK in a similar equivalence stand-off with the European Union to the one Switzerland faced in 2019 when the European Commission chose not to renew its equivalence.
“The recent agreement between the UK and Switzerland on stock exchange equivalence is a welcome development. It will enhance liquidity and trading efficiencies in hundreds of securities to the benefit of issuers and investors in both financial centres,” said Robert Barnes, chief executive of Turquoise.
UK based venues were trading around 7-10% of their overall trading volumes in Swiss securities in 2019 and so their readmission will offer a welcome boost following the loss of EU share trading after Brexit.