Brexit crowns Amsterdam Europe’s top trading hub, ousting The City
Amsterdam surpassed London as Europe’s largest share trading centre last month, as Brexit led London to lose business.
Some €9.2bn shares a day were traded on Euronext Amsterdam and the Dutch arms of CBOE and Turquoise, the London Stock Exchange’s platform, last month – a more than fourfold increase from December, the Financial Times reported.
By comparison, volumes fell sharply in London to €8.6bn, knocking London from its main position as Europe’s largest trader.
Though the economic hit from the loss of trade volumes will be small, with the process involving extremely low margins, it represents a symbolic moment.
The lack of an equivalence deal in the UK’s departure agreement with the EU is behind the shift.
As a result, immediately €6.5bn of deals went to the EU when the Brexit transition period ended.
But many believe that the lack of an equivalence deal could in fact help the City appeal to more global destinations, including Hong Kong and Singapore.
Barclays boss Jes Staley last week said that a more global outlook would do the City well.
Rosenblatt Securities market structure analyst Anish Puaar told the FT: “It’s symbolic in that London has lost its status as the home of EU share trading, but it has a chance to carve out its own niche on trading.
“Fund managers will be more concerned with availability of liquidity and the costs of placing a trade, rather than whether an order is executed in London or Amsterdam.”