Pan-European central counterparty EMCF has restructured its tariffs for clearing equity trades, in a move that is expected to grow the total level of trading in Europe.
From 1 July, EMCF will charge €0.03 for the first 100,000 contracts cleared per participant and €0.01 for over 100,000 contracts cleared. EMCF’s current clearing rate is €0.03 per contract for clearing UK stocks and €0.05 for all other markets. The change will particularly appeal to high-frequency firms, which typically trade in greater volumes than traditional market participants.
The reduction will benefit the trading venues serviced by EMCF, which include BATS Europe, Burgundy, Chi-X Europe, Nasdaq OMX Nordic Exchanges and Quote MTF.
Alasdair Haynes, CEO, Chi-X said he expects to see greater trading activity across both MTFs and exchanges as a result of the new fee schedule.
“We have been an advocate of reducing the frictional costs relating to clearing in Europe for some time, with the purpose of achieving a deeper, more liquid equities market in Europe,” Haynes told theTRADEnews.com. “This move will help to entice new trading entities that have previously been unable to trade in Europe because of high clearing costs, and we expect to see a rise in volume in the months to come.”
EMCF’s new tariff is similar to the pricing schedule implemented by rival clearing house EuroCCP last year.
“Listening to our customers, we are continuously improving our services to them and we keep on offering those services at the most competitive prices available in the market,” said EMCF CEO Jan Booij, in a statement.
EMCF will maintain its optional order-based fee, at the adjusted rates of €0.05 for the first 75,000 orders cleared across all markets and €0.03 for any orders in excess of 75,000 contracts. So far this year, EMCF reports that its clearing volumes have reached an average of 3.5 million trade sides per day.