Frankfurt has taken the upper hand in its battle with London to connect to China's capital markets following the announcement of two joint ventures that will link the respective exchanges of Germany and China.
Deutsche Börse, Germany's largest exchange, will establish a 50/50 joint venture with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the interbank trading and foreign exchange division of China's central bank, to host interbank products and enable trading in renminbi currency and interest rate products. The trading platform will be hosted in Frankfurt.
In addition, Deutsche Börse has also teamed up with Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange to form the China Europe International Exchange (CEINEX), the first authorised platform dedicated to renminbi trading outside of mainland China. It will also be hosted in Frankfurt and will begin trading on November 18th, initially dealing in exchange traded funds (ETFs) and bonds.
The deals were completed in a signing ceremony in Beijing led by German chancellor Angela Merkel and Deutsche Börse chief executive Carsten Kengeter. It comes a week after Chinese president Xi Jinping spent a week in the UK meeting various business leaders and dignitaries.
A similar link-up between the Shanghai and London stock exchanges has been explored but with no formal agreement as yet.