Equities trading volumes for Turquoise, the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) multilateral trading facility (MTF), are down nearly 30% year-on-year, according to the exchange operator's six-monthly results, giving its new CEO a host of issues to deal with.
Value traded on Turquoise reached €200.8 billion in the six months ending 30 September, a 27% drop from last year’s €276.3 billion, and the amount of derivatives contracts traded Turquoise fell 38% to 13.4 million.
Meantime, value traded on the LSE’s UK domestic secondary market slumped 19% to £508 billion and revenue from Turquoise and UK equities trading on the LSE was down 23%, reaching £40.1 million from last year's figure of £52.1 million.
Turquoise’s new CEO Natan Tiefenbrun, who was elevated this week from head of product, equity and derivatives markets for Turquoise, could be forced to make sweeping changes quickly to restore confidence in the MTF, which the LSE acquired in 2010.
Outgoing CEO Adrian Farnham has been appointed COO of the London Metal Exchange’s clearing arm, LME Clear.
Despite Turquoise’s performance, the LSE Group may be buoyed by overall results, with total revenue up 7% to £349.8 million from £328.1 million, and recent take-up of the company’s exchange technology MilleniumIT platforms in Hong Kong, Oslo, Johannesburg and the LME.
The report also notes approval given by the French regulator for the planned acquisition of European clearing house LCH.Clearnet will boost the group’s activity as interoperability and clearing of over-the-counter derivatives both become mandated in European regulation under MiFID II and EMIR.