StoneX has completed its acquisition of futures brokerage and clearing firm R J O’Brien, making it the largest non-bank futures commission merchant (FCM) in the US.
RJO reported US$766 million in revenue for full-year 2024.
StoneX states that this acquisition, first announced in April, will allow it to cross-sell in OTC derivatives, physical commodity trading and fixed income products.
The company expects to see US$50 million in increased revenues from the acquisition, increasing its client float by close to US$6 billion.
Philip Smith, StoneX CEO, commented, “This transaction significantly expands our scale and increases our capabilities in several critical areas, including through a materially expanded client network and the addition of the leading introducing broker business.
“The combination of the companies’ leading technologies and tools, such as in OTC hedging, risk management, and trading execution and liquidity across multiple asset classes, will deliver clients important benefits.”
SGX is cashing in on its Trading Technologies (TT) investment as the company’s owner 7RIDGE partners with software investment firm Thoma Bravo.
Through the new partnership, the companies say they aim to take TT through its next phase of growth. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 2025 following regulatory approval. Terms of the deal were not shared.
A number of suitable partner investors were reviewed, 7RIDGE stated, adding that the project saw “wide and deep” interest.
TT was acquired by growth equity firm 7RIDGE in December 2021. Earlier this year, the company reached pre-set performance targets negotiated during the acquisition that allowed limited partners in the fund owning TT, Cboe and SGX, to take an exit option and take over the company, a route neither took.
In an update on its investment in the fund entitled ‘7RIDGE Investments 3’, SGX said, “Upon completion of the transaction, SGX will receive distribution proceeds in accordance with the fund’s distribution schedule and the fund is expected to be wound up.”
As outlined in Cboe’s March 2025 10-Q filing, “If Trading Technologies is sold, the general partner of the 7Ridge Fund would be entitled to receive a variable portion of the sales proceeds, and the limited partners would be entitled to receive a portion of the sales proceeds in accordance with the investment agreements.”
On Thoma Brava’s engagement with the company, TT CEO Justin Llewellyn-Jones commented, “The combination of TT’s business and technology experience, 7RIDGE’s deep sector knowledge, and Thoma Bravo’s strategic and operational expertise will truly make us an extraordinary force. With the backing of these two partners, TT is in its strongest position to date to become the operating system for the capital markets.”
Houlihan Lokey is lead financial advisor, with Barclays acting as financial advisor to TT.
As the global ETF market continues to boom, the race is on for companies to become the data provider of choice. In a bid for the crown, ETF and index data provider Ultumus has joined forces with data and analytics firm BMLL to enhance ETF market participants’ trading efficiency and spread performances.
According to PwC, assets under management (AUM) for global ETFs was up 27% in 2024 to a total US$14.6 trillion at year-end. The majority of participants of the firm’s survey expected to see ETF AUM reach at least US$26 trillion by June 2029, and a quarter anticipate that figure to exceed US$30 trillion.
Through their collaboration, BMLL data will be used to measure the impact of Ultumus’ portfolio composition file (PCF) service on trading efficiency.
Bernie Thurston, Ultumus, CEO, explained, “By providing timely PCFs with a complete and consistent view of the ETF structure, we enable traders to price ETFs more accurately, leading to tighter spreads. BMLL’s advanced analytics brings this to life, clearly showing which ETFs outperform on bid/offer spreads and why, giving both traders and issuers a meaningful edge.”
Traders are now able to layer BMLL’s Level 3 analytics with the PCF data, allowing them to more efficiently model price movement and execution scenarios, the firm said.
The companies add that one European ETF issuer has used the service to analyse its spread performance and identify a 16% reduction in spread threshold breaches and a 12% performance improvement.
BMLL clients can now access Ultumus’ ETF reference data and issuer-published metrics through the BMLL Data Lab and market microstructure visualisation platform BMLL Vantage before market open and across regions on a daily basis.
This gives users the ability to understand the distribution and market share of trading volume by issuer, compare trends and more deeply analyse ETF constituents, BMLL stated.
Paul Humphrey, CEO of BMLL, commented, “[This] is part of BMLL’s ongoing strategy to broaden our content and data coverage globally. Our global customer base is now able to use these combined data sets to deepen their understanding of ETF liquidity dynamics, how these shift over time, and gain insights that will help them differentiate themselves in a competitive landscape.”
UBS dominated non-US equity trading revenues in the first half of 2025, with record results pushing it further ahead of its competitors.
The bank reported €1.6 billion in equity trading revenue in Q2 2025, an 1% increase QoQ and 35% increase YoY. Growth was driven by strong activity in cash equities, equity derivatives and financing, the bank said.
In the derivatives and solutions division of global markets, revenues were up 24% YoY to approximately €963.9 million (US$1,115m).
Sergio Ermotti.
More broadly, Sergio Ermotti, Group CEO at UBS, commented, “we further simplified our operations across the organization and made good progress in our active wind down efforts in non core and legacy, particularly around costs.”
The bank’s results call was dominated by concerns about potential changes to capital requirements proposed by the Swiss Federal Council, which would require it to hold approximately US$42 billion in additional CET1 capital.
Ermotti stated, “The proposals fail to recognize that UBS has had a consistently strong capital position, business model and risk management framework, and the fact that UBS has not relied on regulatory concessions or overly aggressive valuations of foreign participations. Further, it disregards the significant diversification value our foreign subsidiaries provide to all of our stakeholders, including our clients in Switzerland. We are strong, thanks to our global footprint, not in spite of it.
“In addition, the proposal at ordinance level only consumes surplus capital and cosmetically reduces the group CET1 ratio. This would underrepresent the true capital strength of the firm on an absolute basis and relative to peers.”
UBS has seen consistent growth since Q4 2023, unlike the more up-and-down paths of its competitors.
Runner-up Barclays overtook BNP Paribas this quarter, continuing its zig-zag earnings pattern. Revenues fell back 11% from Q1’s €1 billion, but still represented a 22% YoY increase for the bank.
C. S. Venkatakrishnan, Barclays.
C.S. Venkatakrishnan, group chief executive at Barclays, highlighted strong momentum in client onboarding over the quarter.
“Stable income streams now account for 40% of the investment bank’s income in the past year, up from 29% in 2021,” he commented.
“From this structurally stronger base, the investment bank is also better positioned to monetise cyclical market activity by helping clients to manage volatility. This cyclical activity is included in traditional areas of strength for us, such as credit and macro, and also in new areas of strength, such as equity derivatives and prime.”
Equity trading revenues at BNP Paribas, SocGen and Barclays once again converged in the middle of the pack, falling from Q1 spikes.
BNP Paribas reported €980 million, just above SocGen’s €962 million. The firm saw a 17% decline on Q1, and an even larger 20% decline from Q2 2024’s €1.2 billion.
SocGen’s results illustrated a 9% QoQ decline, but just a 3% drop YoY from €989 million.
Lars Machenil, BNP Paribas.
Lars Machenil, group chief finance officer at BNP Paribas, observed, “Equity and prime services (EPS) was down about 15% due to the high base effect a year ago and compared with our US peers who are more exposed than us to the flow business, which was very strong this quarter on the other side of the Atlantic.
“We were also impacted by lower demand for structured products in the context of the uncertainty post Liberation Day. However, if we look at the first semester results at €2.2 billion, they represent a record for EPS, driven in particular by prime and cash.”
Barclays also drew attention to its performance during April’s volatility.
Venkatakrishnan commented, “We [delivered] this performance whilst managing risk well, maintaining stable value at risk (VaR) and incurring two trading book loss days, one in April and one in May, in line with the average since 2019.”
Trailing after a sharp Q1 increase, HSBC reported €210 million in the second quarter, down 51% QoQ – but making a 25% gain YoY. Figures for the bank have been calculated based on full year 2024 reports, as HSBC no longer breaks down its equity and FICC trading revenues.
FX liquidity network LoopFX has gone live after three years of development.
A total of 15 asset managers and banks have executed agreements with the company, Loop FX stated, including Schroders, Royal London Asset Management, State Street Investment Management and RBC Capital Markets.
Blair Hawthorne, CEO and founder of LoopFX, stated, “With strong early adoption and growing momentum, we are well-positioned to accelerate our growth in the institutional FX market.”
The independent trading venue is designed for large spot FX trades, providing peer-to-bank matching for traders to match with asset managers and banks in real-time. The firm states that this reduces information leakage and improves execution outcomes.
Clients’ trades are matched on State Street FX Connect.
Greg Fortuna, head of GlobalLINK at State Street, commented, “Integrating LoopFX into our FX Connect platform enhances our clients’ ability to access mid-market liquidity efficiently and securely. This collaboration supports our broader goal of delivering seamless execution workflows that help clients manage large FX trades with greater precision and reduced market impact.”
LoopFX is backed by Augementum Fintech, which invested £2.6 million in the company last June.
Data provider big xyt has made changes to the market structure methodology of the Association of Financial Markets in Europe’s (AFME) Equity Primary Markets and Trading Report, reflecting the ongoing addressable liquidity debate in European markets.
“Due to methodology adjustments to the amount of addressable liquidity by the data provider, some figures have been revised,” AFME’s report said.
Improvements to flagging and re-categorised trades were the driver of these changes, big xyt told Global Trading, highlighting regulatory changes last year that saw a number of reported trades move between off-book and over-the-counter markets.
Mark. Montgomery, big xyt.
Earlier this year, a study from Aquis called for a single, enforceable flag taxonomy to be imposed on all post-trade reporting. At the time, big xyt chief commercial officer Mark Montgomery told Global Trading that inconsistent flagging was creating an unclear picture of available liquidity in the European markets.
Following the adjustments, the proportion of Pan-European volume traded on-venue declined.
In AFME’s Q1 2025 report, it stated, “In line with our records since 2018, the proportion of on-venue trading has remained stable at just over 70% of total addressable liquidity.”
Following the adjustments, on-venue trading now represents 64% of the market. Off-venue trading’s market share increased from 28% to 36%.
The changes also resulted in lower reported average daily equity turnover value on European exchanges and multilateral trading facilities.
Euronext has submitted an all-share voluntary share exchange offer for ATHEX as it seeks to build out its presence in Southeast Europe.
Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and chairman of the managing board of Euronext, commented, “Euronext targets to further expand its geographical footprint to Greece and establish a financing hub in the Southeast Europe region through ATHEX.
“Greece has experienced strong economic growth in recent years, supported by rising investment, growing international confidence, and solid economic indicators. This is the right time, the right moment to invest in Greece.”
The offer will exchange every 20 ATHEX ordinary shares, each valued at €7.14, for one new Euronext share, valued at €142.7 as of 30 July. The ordinary share capital of ATHEX is valued at approximately €412.8 million on a fully diluted basis.
The acquisition was proposed earlier this month, and has since received unanimous support from the ATHEX board of directors.
Euronext states that its consolidation with ATHEX would improve the Greek market’s international visibility and attract investment, and would contribute to the broader goal of harmonised European capital markets.
Boujnah stated, “Today, the commitment to progress towards a Savings and Investments Union (SIU) in Europe is unprecedented, and we are fully dedicated to transform this commitment into a reality.”
A consultation on the SIU by the European Commission closed in early June.
Simons joined Virtu in 2008, and has held trading and technology roles across the firm.
Michael Viola, Virtu Financial chairman, commented, “the board is confident that [Simons] possesses the leadership, judgement, and vision to build on our momentum. This transition reflects the strength of our internal talent and long-term planning.”
Downes has more than 25 years of experience and joins Aquis from fintech advisory firm IOX Partners, where he has been a managing partner since 2022. Prior to this, he was EMEA head of electronic trading sales and strategy at ITG, acquired by Virtu Financial in 2019. He spent more than 14 years with the company.
Downes began his career at Merrill Lynch in New York, rising to head of global credit technology product management in 2003.
The order said that Jane Street had pushed up stocks and future prices to inflate the BANKNIFTY index, making more than US$556.7 million in profit from options trading.
A Jane Street representative stated, “Jane Street is committed to conduct that upholds the integrity of India’s capital markets and contributes to their continued development. We are engaging constructively with SEBI and have sought an extension to respond to the interim order issued on July 3.”
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