Deutsche Börse has launched a pan-European market, based on its Xetra electronic trading platform, as it looks to take on the raft of new competitors to have emerged in the wake of MiFID.
The first phase of Xetra International Market went live today, enabling around 260 participants to trade European blue chips and settle the transactions in their domestic market.
The first stocks to be available for trading on XIM are the most liquid ones from Belgium, France and the Netherlands. These will be joined in a few weeks by stocks from Finland and Spain, and in mid-January 2010 by the Italian blue chips.
Trades will be offset via the exchange's Eurex Clearing unit will and settled in the respective domestic markets. Clearstream forms the interface between Eurex Clearing and the domestic markets enabling it to use the latter's settlement liquidity.
Deutsche Börse says XIM will significantly strengthen its competitive position on the European equities trading market. By tapping the Xetra platform and Eurex, the exchange has not needed to make significant investment in the project and says it "expects XIM to be a very sustainable business model".
Europe's traditional exchanges have taken different approaches to fighting off the new entrants such as Chi-X, Turquoise and Bats that have emerged since the introduction of MiFID. Nyse Euronext launched its MTF Nyse Arca Europe earlier this year while the LSE looks set to merge its Baikal dark pool with the Turquoise platform.