TESTING TIMES FOR EQUITY EXCHANGES

摘要

Two years after the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (MiFID) came into force in Europe and not a great deal has changed - or has it? There are certainly new trading platforms and new clearing systems, but the general landscape of Europe, dominated by the three largest exchanges - Deutsche Bourse, NYSE Euronext and the London Stock Exchange (LSE) - remains unfazed. Or is it? Certainly there are many pretenders to these giants' thrones, but are any of them really up to the job?rnIn November 2007, MiFID's rules on transparency of trading came into force. The idea was that we would have a pan-European investment market that would be as transparent, competitive and efficient as the US markets. Various players threw their hat into the ring to shake things up and, two years later, only one is making any major inroads: the Instinet subsidiary, Chi-X.