News from the Nordics has been flooding in, and most of it has been coming from the exchanges. Last summer, Nordic securities exchange Burgundy, which offers trading in more than 1200 securities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, launched a competitive clearing service that allowed customers to choose between European clearinghouses the European Multilateral Clearing (EMCF) and SIX x-clear.
News from the Nordics has been flooding in, and most of it has been coming from the exchanges. Last summer, Nordic securities exchange Burgundy, which offers trading in more than 1200 securities in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, launched a competitive clearing service that allowed customers to choose between European clearinghouses the European Multilateral Clearing (EMCF) and SIX x-clear.
Olof Neiglick, the CEO of Burgundy, said at the time: “This is an important strategic milestone for our clients as we are the first Nordic exchange that offers choice in the increasingly important clearing landscape. In the last three years we have seen a radical transformation in the way equity trading takes place, resulting in lower transaction costs for investors.”
“Now we are taking the next step by introducing competition also for the clearing part. Deregulation and competition are the main drivers behind service improvements and price cuts in any market—this is also the case for Nordic securities trading as the industry matures.”
But autumn of the same year brought a very different change, when it was announced that securities trading firm Oslo Børs was set to acquire full ownership of Swedish exchange company Burgundy.
The firm purchased Burgundy from a group of Nordic banks and brokers, with the hope that the acquisition would mean the exchange becoming a stronger competitor—both for other Nordic exchanges, and for foreign trading platforms that offer trading in Nordic securities.
Most recently, significant changes were announced by exchanges across the region that specifically addressed clearing. NASDAQ OMX announced a new operating structure for the local entity in Stockholm, Sweden, as a part of the continued compliance with key EU regulation EMIR (European Market Infrastructure Regulation).
Independent directors were appointed for the exchange in Stockholm, in preparation for the separation of the clearing operations and the exchange related operations that was executed on 3 September 2013.
The current clearing-house operation will then be maintained within the current company, which will be renamed to NASDAQ OMX Clearing AB. All exchange related operations will be moved to another separate company within the NASDAQ OMX Group, and the exchange company will assume the name NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.
Under the new structure, Johan Rudén was appointed president of the clearing facility, and Magnus Billing has been appointed president of NASDAQ OMX Stockholm.
The NASDAQ OMX Group, which operates seven Nordic and Baltic exchanges, also announced plans to expand the range of interest-rate swaps it clears. The exchange is now aiming to clear interest-rate swaps denominated in Danish kroner, Norwegian kroner and euros. Moreover, it was made clear that the exchange will start processing some products in the market for repurchase agreements.
