Swiss Volumes Help London Catch Up with Amsterdam in Share Trading

By Huw Jones

Amsterdam took the European top spot in share trading from London in January after roughly 8 billion euros ($9.39 billion) a day left for the Dutch capital.

It was the first tangible sign of how Britain’s full departure from the European Union on Dec. 31 will impact the City as the follow-up EU-UK trade deal does not cover finance.

In January, the average daily value of shares traded in Amsterdam was 9.22 billion euros, with 8.62 billion euros in London and 6.06 billion euros in Paris, Cboe said.

In March, Amsterdam traded 10.68 billion euros, just ahead of 10.62 billion euros in London, and 6.74 billion in Frankfurt, which has pushed Paris, at 6.44 billion, into fourth place, Cboe said.

The European Commission had stopped EU investors from trading on Swiss exchanges in June 2019 after a treaty dispute. Switzerland then banned EU exchanges from trading Swiss shares.

Brexit meant that Britain no longer had to comply with such EU decisions and Swiss share trading resumed in London in early February. Before the ban, London handled around 1.2 billion euros daily in Swiss shares.

The shift in euro share trading was expected. Chunks of euro derivatives trading have also left for Amsterdam, and a billion euros in daily EU emission allowance contracts will follow on June 7.

Former EU financial services commissioner Jonathan Hill has said the move in share trading had “crystallised” minds that direct City access to the EU was unlikely. He said it was better to focus on making the UK globally competitive in finance. [L8N2LN73A]

“The worst possible thing you can do is just sit there and hope the Europeans will come to our rescue,” Hill said last week.

After agreeing a regulatory cooperation pact with London last week, Brussels has said it was in “no rush” to grant the City direct access to the 27-nation bloc.

(Reporting by Huw Jones; Editing by Mark Heinrich)