With the reduction of the transaction fees for Finnish equity options, the exchanges want to achieve growth in trading volumes worldwide at Eurex. The goal is to enhance the attractiveness of exchange trading further in these products and to draw additional business from the over-the-counter (OTC) market. In the future, Eurex customers will only have to pay 0.50 euros for trading and clearing a contract, market makers 0.10 euros.
Jukka Ruuska, President of HEX Integrated Markets, said: "We want to offer market participants the best services at lower costs by reducing the transaction fees for our equity options. By lowering the fees we believe that we will regain volumes on-exchange."
"We see one of the greatest business opportunities for Eurex in the relationship to the OTC market," said Eurex CEO Rudolf Ferscha. "The benefits of the mutually stimulating OTC and exchange markets will lead to further growth industry-wide, and thus also to further growth at Eurex", he added. "Eurex creates the necessary prerequisites for a fruitful cooperation between the two markets through its customer-focused services at lowest costs. The reduction of transaction costs for Finnish equity options is an important step for further growth," he said.
The option on Nokia is the most liquid Finnish equity option worldwide and one of the most heavily traded equity products at Eurex overall. Some 12 million Nokia contracts have already been traded this year, giving Eurex a market share of some 70 percent in worldwide trading of Nokia equity options.
Eurex and HEX Integrated Markets have been working together since September 1999 in trading with Finnish equity options. Since that time, the most liquid Finnish equity options, such as Nokia, UPM and Sonera, have been listed on Eurex and have thus been tradable for all Eurex customers. The members of HEX Integrated Markets became Eurex participants at the same time, giving them access to the entire product portfolio of the world's largest derivatives market.
