Amsterdam becomes biggest share-trading centre in January

Amsterdam overtook London as Europe’s largest share trading centre in January after Brexit saw about half of the city’s volumes move to the continent.

An average €9.2bn worth of shares a day were traded on various Dutch venues in January, a more than fourfold increase from December, according to data from Cboe Europe. That compares to average daily volumes in London of €8.6bn.

The data doesn’t account for the return of Swiss share trading to London, which only resumed last week. That may see the UK capital edge back ahead in February, although its average daily volumes will still be well below historic levels.

Britain lost its rights to access the single market on December 31 and the EU has not permitted investors inside the bloc to trade shares in companies such as Airbus and BNP Paribas from the UK That’s seen more than €6bn of daily EU share trading leave London since the start of 2021.

While the business is relatively low margin it is an illustration of how some of the Square Mile’s decades-long dominance of European finance is eroding away after Brexit. Other areas including euro swap trading has also shifted from the UK capital to both the EU and Wall Street.

The shifts reflects the failure to secure so-called equivalence rulings from the EU, on whether the UK’s rules are robust enough to enable seamless access for financial services. EU officials have said the bloc’s in no rush to make these decisions.

The Financial Times reported the data earlier.

Bloomberg