Mark Uyeda, Trump’s choice for acting chairman of the SEC, has a history of voting against enforcement, data collection and ESG measures, often the sole opposition to his fellow commissioners’ votes.
The Republican commissioner is expected to be in place before Trump’s permanent nomination Paul Atkins is confirmed by the Senate.
Atkins was appointed to the SEC in 2002 under the George Bush administration, and served as a commissioner until 2008. He has been vocal in his dislike of regulation via enforcement and large corporate fines, and has opposed the SEC Whistleblower Programme as a system that “creates perverse incentives”. He is expected to begin his term as chair this summer.
Uyeda has been a commissioner at the SEC since June 2022, and worked with senior leadership at the US Department of the Treasury and the US Department of Labour during Trump’s first term.
Over 2024, Uyeda opposed motions calling for stricter action around data management, special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) regulation and enhanced climate-related disclosures. During the year, he did not approve approximately 13% of the decisions, orders, rules and similar actions considered by the commission. A further 5% were approved with exceptions.
Notable examples include Uyeda’s opposition to recordkeeping and off-channel communication fines against 26 firms made by the SEC last August, totalling US$392.75 million.
In December, alongside fellow Trump-appointee Hester Peirce, he argued that the Commission’s plans to introduce a consolidated audit trail (CAT) – designed to allow regulatory tracking of national market securities in US markets – was “a system that one would expect to find in a dystopian surveillance state, not the shining beacon for liberty and the free world.”
The duo added: “The commission’s apparent insatiable appetite to obtain and store more and more surveillance data in its systems grows with each rulemaking—with little consideration on issues such as cost and purpose.”
In an earlier statement opposing enhanced and standardised climate-related disclosures for investors, Uyeda stressed his opinion that the commission should not be involved in social issues.
He said: “The commission ventured outside of its lane and set a precedent for using its disclosure regime as a means for driving social change. If left unchecked, we may see further misuse of the Commission’s rules for political and social issues and an erosion of the agency’s reputation as an independent financial regulator.”
Uyeda’s approach aligns with Trump’s plans to move away from disclosure regimes and actions seen as restrictive to economic growth.
Earlier in his career Uyeda was chief advisor to the Californian securities regulator, the Corporations Commissioner, and spent a number of years as a corporate and securities attorney in Washington DC and Los Angeles.
The Natixis-Generali merger, discussions for which began last year, is taking shape. The two firms will equally co-own the business, which is expected to launch in early 2026.
After signing a non-binding memorandum of understanding, the firms announced that Generali Investment Holdings CEO Woody Bradford will serve as CEO of the new venue. Natixis Investment Management CEO Philippe Setbon will be his deputy. The company will be established in Amsterdam, with operational hubs in France, Italy and the US.
The combined business will hold €1.9 trillion in assets under management (AUM), putting it in the top 10 of global asset managers by AUM and taking first place in Europe by revenues (€4.1 billion). The companies will retain control over asset allocation decisions for their respective investments.
This merger follows a series of European asset management consolidation announcements last year, including BNP Paribas’s discussions of a €5.1 billion deal to buy AXA IM and UniCredit’s reentry into the space with its Banco CPM.
Generali is contributing €15 billion in seed and acceleration capital across affiliates making up the joint venture. This will allow the company to benefit from further investments executed by asset management partners on its behalf.
Over the first two years of the new company’s operations, BPCE will receive preferred dividend rights and Generali the repayment tranches of a loan related to its recent acquisition of MGG Investment Group.
Natixis parent group BCPE’s CEO Nicolas Namias will serve as chairman of the board, and Generali’s CEO Philippe Donnet as vice chairman. The companies stated that employee representative bodies will be consulted before definitive transaction documents are signed.
Paul Johnson has joined Barclays as APAC head of equities as the firm continues to build out its presence in the region.
He reports to Jaideep Khanna, APAC CEO and head of markets, and Scott McDavid, global head of equities.
McDavid stated that APAC is a key region for Barclays’s global equities business, a sentiment echoed by Khanna last year. The bank is expanding its teams in Japan and India specifically, he said.
On the appointment, Khanna said: “[Johnson’s] extensive industry expertise and client-first approach will be instrumental in accelerating our growth ambitions across Asia Pacific.”
In H1 2024, income generated in Asian markets was down slightly year-on-year, from 5.2% to 4.9% of total income.
Based in Hong Kong, Johnson will focus on equity derivatives, equity-linked financing, electronic trading and prime within the region’s equity franchise.
He has more than 20 years of experience, and joins Barclays from his role as APAC co-head of equity derivatives and head of exotics equity derivatives trading at Goldman Sachs. Earlier in his career, he was a CEEMEA forex options trader at the firm before moving to Bank of America as head of CEEMEA and LatAm forex options trading.
Caroline Pham has been named acting chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), replacing Rostin Behnam.
Behnam announced his departure earlier this month, after seven years at the commission and more than three years as chairman. He officially leaves his post on 7 February.
Since his announcement, the CFTC has also seen clearing and risk director Clark Hutchison and departure of enforcement director Ian McGinley exit the commission.
Pham has been a CFTC commissioner since early 2022, before which she spent more than seven years in senior roles at Citi. These included managing director and head of market structure for strategic initiatives, head of capital markets regulatory strategy and engagement, and deputy head of global regulatory affairs.
Shaking off a hit from last summer’s volatility, Goldman Sachs finished 2024 with US$13.43 billion in equity trading revenue – up 14% year-on-year (YoY). With Trump in the White House, things can only get better, the bank says.
After another year of unprecedented events, Goldman Sachs finished 2024 with US$13.43 billion in equity trading revenue – up 14% year-on-year (YoY).
“While there remains some policy uncertainty, there is an expectation that the regulatory burden will be reduced, which should serve as a tailwind to risk assets and capital deployment,” CEO David Solomon told analysts.
Banks shared positive outlooks on the year ahead, anticipating a positive environment for equity trading – in part due to the expected regulatory relaxation in a second Trump term. A lighter touch to regulation would be welcome for big banks, which are pushing up risk exposures as they try to keep revenues growing.
Earlier this month, the Fed’s chief banking regulator Michael Barr announced that he was stepping down as vice chair of supervision. A supporter of stricter rules for banks, Barr’s actions since his 2022 appointment included pushing for larger capital requirements for systemically important banks under the Basel III Endgame proposal.
Both of those expected to be Barr’s Trump-appointed replacement, commissioners Michelle Bowman and Christopher Waller, have opposed Basel III.
Predictions of easing regulation under Trump were clear from November. Alastair Borthwick, chief financial officer at Bank of America, noted the positive macroclimate for the asset class: “Equities benefited from increased activity around the US election. This quarter, our sales and trading revenue marked a fourth quarter record.”
Solomon also highlighted the recent suit filed by a number of US banks against the Federal Reserve. “We have long been concerned that the lack of transparency and the Fed’s current stress testing creates uncertainty and at times produces results we cannot understand and which can lead to higher industry-wide borrowing costs, reduced market liquidity and inefficient capital allocations.
“For the industry, the bar to take this step was incredibly high. And while the Fed has announced that it’s seeking to improve the stress test, the suit was filed to protect our rights. We believe it is our responsibility to continue to press for a more transparent regulatory process in order to foster a more efficient financial system that supports growth and competitiveness of the US economy.”
JP Morgan’s chief financial officer Jeremy Barnum added: “We are happy to see the clear recognition on the part of the Fed that many of the things that we’ve been talking about for a long time in terms of transparency and volatility. Let’s just hope that we see some significant progress on that front.”
Goldman chief financial officer Denis Coleman reflected on strong equity market performance across 2024, and the impact this had on equity underwriting revenues – which reached US$499 million over the year.
Growth at the bank has also been influenced by its narrowed focus on global banking and markets and asset and wealth management as its key businesses, Solomon said. “The organisational structure that we’re creating allows us to take advantage of [the] intersection between both public markets and private markets and the way you marry capital with issuers, but also marrying issuers and their need for capital with all different kinds of investors.”
Furthering this goal, the bank recently established the Capital Solutions Group to consolidate financing, origination, structuring and risk management solutions under the Global Banking and Markets group.
“[This positions] Goldman Sachs to operate at the fulcrum of one of the most important structural trends taking place in finance: the emergence and growth of private credit and other asset classes that can be privately deployed,” Solomon said.
Equity trading revenues
Morgan Stanley fell behind its peers, plateauing after a steep decline in revenue from over the year. The bank hit highs of US$4.94 billion in Q4 2023, spiking from Q3 2023’s US$2.51 billion, but this steadily declined over the next two quarters. Overall, revenues were up just 5% YoY.
Sharon Yeshaya, chief financial officer at Morgan Stanley, stated: “Results were largely driven by accelerating strength in equity underwriting as follow-on and IPO issuance saw meaningful improvements over the comparison period.”
She cited a particularly strong performance in the company’s Asian operations and increased interest in retail and alternative products as influential factors in this growth.
JP Morgan followed the opposite pattern, with steadily increasing revenues falling short in the final quarter and returning to the same levels seen in Q4 2023. Year-on-year, equity trading revenues remained static.
Agreeing with Yeshaya and Coleman, Barnum commented: “Underwriting fees were up meaningfully, primarily driven by favourable market conditions.”
“In terms of the outlook for the overall investment banking wallet, we remain optimistic about our pipeline,” he concluded.
CEO Jamie Dimon, only recently out of the race for US Treasury secretary, was probed during the bank’s earnings call to name his successor. “It’s not determined yet,” he said, but shared that he will not be leaving the bank immediately.
Citi ended the year with US$5.04 billion, marking the greatest improvement of the banks in equity trading revenues YoY – up 35% from 2023.
Jane Fraser, CEO, commented: “Markets saw its highest fourth quarter revenue in a decade and increased 36% with broad based gains across all products. Equities revenues increased 34%, driven in part by strong execution of strategic client transactions in cash equities.”
Equity trading revenues
Bank of America remained fairly steady in its revenue performance across 2024, reaching a peak of US$2 billion in Q3 and ending the year with a total US$7.14 billion, down marginally from 2023’s US$7.15 billion.
Looking ahead, Goldman’s Solomon warned, “there’ll be some surprises to the ups and there’ll be some surprises to the downs – as there always are.”
Climate disclosures and transition finance: APAC’s path forward
By Shanny Basar, Senior Writer, Markets Media Group
2024 has been a pivotal year for climate, marked by record-breaking hurricanes, devastating floods, and the looming milestone of surpassing the 1.5°C warming threshold, a benchmark set by the Paris Agreement representing a tipping point for avoiding the severe impacts of climate change. It has also been a turbulent year in global politics with governments and multi-nationals slowing down on climate action. On a positive note, convergence has been achieved around the disclosures set by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), including in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. The region has witnessed landmark transition finance deals, such as the world’s first sovereign climate transition bonds from Japan, but challenges remain around the availability and quality of ESG data.
Disclosures – a global baseline The ISSB was formed in 2021 at COP26 in Glasgow to develop global standards for high-quality, comprehensive sustainability disclosures focused on the needs of investors and financial markets. Although ISSB sets a global baseline, the progress in sustainability has differed across regions. Jules Bottlaender, Head of Sustainable Finance in APAC, Securities Services at BNP Paribas, said innovation and regulation around sustainability have moved very quickly in the European Union, while in contrast, there has been a backlash in the US. He described the progress in APAC as being in the middle of the latter two regions and more government-driven, as there is fragmented regulation across different countries in the region.
Jules Bottlaender
“APAC is on a good track, closely monitoring industry’s developments to implement swiftly the successful formulas,” he added. For example, following a public consultation, Singapore Exchange Regulation (SGX RegCo) has said it will incorporate the ISSB climate-related requirements into its sustainability reporting regime. From the financial year 2025, all issuers will have to report Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions. Boon Gin Tan, Chief Executive Officer of SGX RegCo said in a statement that this is an important step to enable larger issuers to report their Scope 3 GHG emissions from financial year 20261.
Similarly to Singapore, the Australian Government’s Treasury has released a Sustainable Finance Roadmap and mandated sustainability reporting aligned with ISSB from the beginning of 2025. The Australian Sustainable Finance Institute (ASFI) has launched a second round of public consultation on the development of an Australian sustainable finance taxonomy. ASFI is seeking feedback on the climate change mitigation criteria for all six priority sectors for development (including electricity generation and supply; minerals, mining and metals; buildings; manufacturing and industry; transport; and agriculture and land use), a Do No Significant Harm framework, minimum social safeguards and ways in which the taxonomy can be used2.
New Zealand was the first country in the world to legally mandate climate change reporting for financial institutions in October 2021 and has required sustainability reporting since the beginning of 2023. The country also has a 2030 roadmap, which includes plans for a sustainable finance taxonomy which have been published by the industry-led Aotearoa New Zealand Sustainable Finance Forum3.
New Zealand’s External Reporting Board (XRB), the country’s standard-setting authority, has implemented climate-related disclosure standards for specific companies, drawing from the Task Force on Climate- Related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD). The board plans to review the country’s climate standards by December 2025 to assess whether updates are necessary to align with current or upcoming requirements4.
In November 2024, the XRB published a consultation on proposed amendments to its climate and assurance standards and approved three of the four proposals. XRB authorised a one-year extension to the adoption provision for Scope 3 GHG emissions disclosures due to current data challenges; a one-year extension to the adoption provision for anticipated financial impacts disclosures and a new one-year adoption provision relating to the assurance of Scope 3 GHG emissions5. However, it did not adopt a proposal to delay transition planning by an additional year due to strong user demand for this information.
Iain Martin.
“Data has now become critical for firms in New Zealand. As a local custodian, our role is to help these firms by providing the necessary data and reporting services to meet these obligations,” said Iain Martin, Head of Securities Services, New Zealand at BNP Paribas.
Martin said: “For Securities Services at BNP Paribas, we have been focused on ensuring our organisation has a positive impact on the world. This has meant embedding ESG features into our core solutions, sharing ESG insights globally and giving clients access to market leading ESG and sustainability reporting.”
Transition finance It has been estimated that USD $3 trillion a year by 2030 is needed to support the global transition to a net-zero economy by 2050. More than half of it is needed in APAC, and especially in emerging markets6. Bottlaender said: “You can only improve what you can measure. ISSB filled this gap by framing climate disclosure in jurisdictions covering over half of the world’s GDP. The next big challenge is to transition our economies.”
There was a landmark in transition finance this year when the Japanese government issued the world’s first sovereign climate transition bonds in February and raised JPY 1.6 trillion7. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority has also announced that it wants to extend its Green and Sustainable Finance Grant Scheme and expand the scope of the subsidy to cover transition finance instruments8.
Data challenges However, Bottlaender highlighted that APAC lacks data on the energy transition and in addition to the lack of availability, there are challenges around quality and consistency. He said: “Countries in APAC such as Indonesia, India, Thailand have significant populations and need to create an ecosystem to gather transition data.”
Nearly three quarters, 71%, of respondents in BNP Paribas’s 2023 ESG Global Survey of 420 asset owners and managers, hedge funds and private equity firms said that inconsistent and incomplete ESG data is a significant barrier to the greater adoption of ESG, an increase of 17% from 2021. To overcome these data challenges the majority, 65% of respondents, said they use and compare multiple sources of data, while more than one third, 37%, conduct their own research methodologies9.
To help institutional investors with their ESG data challenge, Securities Services at BNP Paribas allows them to store their fund data on a central platform, Manaos (a fintech which is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas), to obtain a comprehensive and transparent view of their investments and estimate their ESG footprint. The platform was developed to meet the advent of regulation in Europe around the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), and so can now benefit firms in APAC. Manaos can seamlessly connect clients’ portfolios with a wide range of third-party ESG data vendors and fintechs, all secured by bank-level security standards.
In October 2024, BNP Paribas’ Securities Services also launched an ESG investment compliance monitoring service in Australia and New Zealand to support local clients and avoid potential compliance breaches. The service, which has also been successfully deployed in Europe, includes a wide range of ESG criteria and delivers external assurance that funds are meeting their ESG commitments through automated post-trade assessment10.
Martin said: “BNP Paribas’ ESG monitoring solution can help each client screen their portfolios against customised and flexible criteria using a range of data feeds from external and internal sources. They can include or exclude specific activities, compare portfolios to ESG ratings and benchmarks, review carbon intensity against a benchmark and review adherence to global standards.”
Embracing a wider path going forward Now that climate disclosure has been enforced in many parts of the world, there needs to be more specifics about the distinctions between green finance and transition finance, as well as between climate mitigation and adaptation.
Indeed, by focusing solely on green assets, the fact that most of the economy needs to transition is overlooked. Similarly, by concentrating only on mitigation, the necessity to adapt to the physical risks of climate change is neglected, and becoming more pronounced every year.
Additionally, 2024 will be the first full year since the establishment of the TNFD (Taskforce for Nature related Financial Disclosure). It will be interesting to see the outcomes of the first disclosures. Meanwhile, the Taskforce on Inequalities and Social (TISFD) was created in September 2024, tasked with the challenging mission of developing a framework to address the most overlooked aspect of sustainability.
While the journey toward full adoption and implementation will require collaboration between governments, businesses, and financial institutions to address regional nuances and challenges, it also presents an opportunity to drive meaningful change. For APAC, a region rich in diversity and economic dynamism, embracing these standards not only aligns with global ESG trends but also positions businesses to lead in sustainable innovation and resilient growth.
The Index Industry Association (IIA) has appointed Kirsten Wegner as CEO. She replaces Rick Redding, who has held the role since the IIA was founded in 2013.
The IIA aims to improve industry best practices, advocate in the interests of index users and providers, and educate investors on the role of indexes. Its members include ICE, FTSE Russell, S&P Dow Jones Indices, STOXX and Nasdaq.
Wegner is responsible for leaving public policy and communications initiatives at the firm, working with the IIA’s 17 member firms and board of directors.
IIA chair and FTSE Russell CEO Fiona Bassett commented: “The IIA plays a critical role in educating investors on the benefits of indexes, advocating for the best interests of index users and providers worldwide and pushing for the highest industry standards of best practice, independence and transparency. With her specialized background working with financial institutions, regulators and legislators, Kirsten is uniquely qualified to lead the IIA forward.”
Wegner has worked in the financial industry for more than 20 years, and joins the IIA from education and advocacy group the Modern Markets Initiative. She was CEO of the group from 2017 to 2024.
Earlier in her career, Wagner was a government relations director at ISE holdings as they launched their all-electronic options exchange, and served as a senior associate at law firm Squire Patton Boggs, working with financial services and technology clients.
Hedge fund Two Sigma, which holds more than US$60 billion in assets under management, took more than four years to address investment model vulnerabilities, the SEC has found.
Two Sigma employees were aware of vulnerabilities in some of the firm’s algo investment models which could negatively impact client returns in or before March 2019, the SEC reported in its investigation. Concerns were raised that staff had complete read and write access to a database holding the parameters for some live-trading models, and could therefore make changes to these metrics without approval.
Initially, model code for Two Sigma’s live trading system was stored in the ‘Jar’, a secure file that could only be updated by the company’s engineering team. However, as the parameters needed to run the models grew, researchers began to store larger samples in a database called celFS. This database was accessible by researchers and various other personnel, the SEC said.
Connecting these parameters to code in the Jar, some researchers altered the impact of the ‘official’ parameters. “This use of model parameters was important to Two Sigma because it removed redundancy that could result in Two Sigma buying or selling more or less of a specific security than it otherwise desired or intended,” the SEC stated in its report.
In early 2019, employees alerted senior management to this practice. Various individuals and groups, including a TwoSigma co-founder, proposed solutions, but a consensus was not reached on how to best deal with the issue.
The subject was considered a number of times over the following years, including by a senior engineer who wrote in January 2022 that “[i]t is […] dangerous to allow this and efforts are in place to limit and eventually allow only data engineering to have write access”.
Two Sigma did not take action on the issue until June 2022, after an employee accidentally overwrote several models’ parameters. The changes were reversed before market open, and Two Sigma limited access to model parameters stored in celFS to certain engineers. Changes to the models would have to be submitted by written request.
Regardless, between November 2021 and August 2023, a modeller with this access made changes to the decorrelation parameters of 14 live-trading models – many of which he had developed or assisted on himself. Some of the alterations were executed without detection, increasing expected correlation to other Two Sigma models.
However, the modeller also submitted requests for changes as Two Sigma required. “He knew, based on his understanding of the ticket process, [that these] would not be substantively reviewed or questioned,” the SEC said.
These changes prompted investment decisions that would not otherwise have been made, and as a result, some client funds and separately managed accounts overperformed by more than US$400 million – while others underperformed by US$165 million.
It was not until August 2023 that Two Sigma began monitoring the celfS database, and identified the alterations.
In November 2023, senior vice president and quant trader Jian Wu was accused of making these unauthorised changes.
Wu subsequently petitioned the Supreme Court of the State of New York to release the names of those who informed Two Sigma of the action, claiming defamation. The case was disposed in March 2024.
In the petition Wu’s attorney stated: “In truth and in fact, as Two Sigma […] well knew, Two Sigma had no policy or practice covering the changes that petitioner made and any purported loss was a result of Two Sigma’s abysmally weak controls and reckless investment decisions.”
Two Sigma failed to introduce written policies and procedures and to supervise employees, the SEC stated. It also noted that departing employees were asked by Two Sigma to “state as fact that they had not filed a complaint with any governmental agency” between 2019 and 2024. These actions were in violation of the commission’s whistleblower protection rule, it said, discouraging individuals from contacting the authorities at risk of their post-separation payments and benefits.
Two Sigma Investments and Two Sigma Advisors (Two Sigma) neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s charges, but has agreed to a cease and desist order imposing a censure and a US$45 million penalty to both its investment and advisory businesses. Impacted funds and accounts were repaid the US$165 million during the investigation.
On the SEC’s announcement, a spokesperson for Two Sigma said: “After proactively reporting the issue in 2023 and promptly remediating negatively impacted clients, Two Sigma is pleased to have reached a resolution with the SEC, putting this matter behind us. We are committed to acting with the utmost integrity and have made a range of enhancements to our operational policies, procedures, and oversight. We are focused on the future and delivering value for our clients.”
Megan Barbero, ex-general counsel, SEC; YJ Fischer, ex-director of international affairs, SEC
Departure announcements continue at the SEC, just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration.
General counsel Megan Barbero and director of international affairs YJ Fischer are the latest to hand in their notice, both leaving the commission on 20 January.
They follow chief accountant Paul Munter and chief economist Jessica Wachter, who announced their departures earlier this week. In November 2024 SEC chair Gary Gensler confirmed that he would be leaving the commission once the new government was in place, while trading and markets division director Haoxiang Zhu left in December.
Fischer has been in her role since August 2021, improving international cooperation around enforcement initiatives and the examination of overseas market participants.
Prior to joining the commission, Fisher held roles in the US State Department. In the private sector, she worked on international policy and research and development funding.
Barbero joined the SEC as principal deputy general counsel in July 2021, before being promoted in February 2023. Acting as chief legal officer, she advised the commission in all legal and policy matters.
Earlier in her career, Barbero was deputy general counsel for the US House of Representatives and an attorney at the US Department of Justice civil appellate.
Gensler commented: “I thank Megan for her many years of public service. Her measured advice and judgment have been critical to the decision making of the commission.”
Euronext’s expansion of single-stock options is not paying off, with the exchange reporting a decline in traded contracts across the board.
In single stock futures and options, Euronext’s market share was down 10 percentage points to 17% over the year. At year-end, 78 million contracts were traded at the exchange to Eurex’s 302.5 million.
Contracts traded: single stock futures and options
This decline has occurred in spite of measures taken by Euronext in 2024 to minimise the gap between the two exchanges. Coverage was expanded to include all German DAX constituents, Irish single stock options and the Portuguese market, with 31 single-stock options launched in November alone.
Eurex’s reign of dominance over European equity derivatives has only gotten stronger in 2024, despite Euronext’s efforts.The role of the Eurostoxx index as a pan-European benchmark gives Eurex a key advantage in volumes, and it is in non-index derivatives where the real competition is revealed.
The German exchange reported 302.5 million contracts traded in 2024, up 16.7% from 2023’s 268.7 million. Comparing contracts traded in December alone, volumes were up 13% to 27.1 million year-on-year (YoY).
Euronext, by contrast, traded 128.897 million contracts in 2024 – down 4.3% on 2023’s 134.7 million. YoY, too, December volumes fell by 5.2% to 8.7 million.
Total equity derivatives contracts traded
As a result, market share for traded contracts tipped to year-long highs for the exchange in December, with Euronext falling to single digits (9%). This is the lowest the ratio has fallen in 2024.
A Euronext spokesperson told Global Trading: “Eurex, as Euronext, has been impacted by low volatility, mainly on index futures.”
Across equity index futures and options, 50 million index futures and options were traded on Euronext, compared to Eurex’s 751.5 million. This gave Euronext 6% of the market share in December; the highest it reached in 2024 was 7%, and the lowest 5%.
Volatility products saw a spike in interest in 2024, with Eurex’s volatility index derivatives trading 21.7 million contracts over the year – up 20.4% on 2023’s figures, which were at a four-year low. Within this, VSTOXX futures were up 14% YoY to 15 million contracts traded, while the number of VSTOXX options contracts traded rose by 38.2%, reaching 6.6 million.
Looking to the year ahead, after celebrating 10 years as a public company Euronext announced its ‘Innovate for Growth 2027’ strategic plan in November 2024. A spokesperson told Global Trading: “Euronext intends to diversify into fixed income derivatives, as part of a broader diversification strategy. We are confident that our strong local ties and our innovative offering will gain traction and allow us to gain market shares in derivatives trading in Europe.”
Goals of the strategic plan also include new trading services in cash equities, the exchange stated in November.
Eurex is also branching out, announcing that from 6 January its dividend options were directly accessible to US market participants.
Robbert Booij, Eurex.
On receiving approval from the CFTC, Robbert Booij, CEO of Eurex Frankfurt, said: “Removing access barriers and making our products available to global investors is a top priority for us. With dividend options on key indices such as the EURO STOXX 50 Index and the EURO STOXX Banks Index, US investors have another efficient tool to manage their exposure to the European market.”
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