The predecessor of Eurofutures Exchange is German Futures Exchange (DTB) and Swiss Futures Options Exchange (SOFFEX). In fact, before the establishment of the European Futures Exchange, the cooperation between the two exchanges had a long history. When the German Futures Exchange officially opened in 1990, the computer trading and information system adopted was based on the system of the Swiss Futures Options Exchange at that time, and the software and hardware facilities at that time were designed with reference to the Swiss Futures Options Exchange. After four years of operation, Deutsche B? rse officially joined the Deutsche B? rse Group (DBAG), which made the spot and futures markets more closely combined, and also played a bridge role for further cooperation between Deutsche B? rse Group and Swiss Futures Options Exchange.
Chance of establishment
The establishment of the European Futures Exchange is mainly due to the formation of the European Monetary Union and the arrival of the Euro era. At the end of 200 1, before the euro was officially put into circulation, the dollar zone accounted for 22% of the global GDP, followed by the euro zone, accounting for 16%, and Japan accounted for about 7%. European economies are getting closer and closer, and their development speed is also accelerating. While the leaders of the euro zone are discussing how to promote the unified currency, the exchanges of various countries are also studying the solutions to the settlement problems brought by different currencies. There are many exchanges and institutions with long-term futures options trading experience in European economies. With the increase of regional transactions, the settlement inconvenience brought by different currencies is becoming increasingly obvious. Deutsche B? rse Group, the parent company of Deutsche B? rse Group, took the lead in establishing a strategic alliance with SWX, and jointly established EUREXZurichAG on 1998 * *. The headquarters of the European Futures Exchange is in Zurich, Switzerland. After the establishment of EUREXZurichAG, it reinvested 65,438+000% in the German subsidiary of the Frankfurt European Futures Exchange. As a result, two exchange subsidiaries, EUREXZurichAG and EurexFrankfurt Tag, developed in Zurich and Frankfurt, were initially formed.
United stock exchange
At the end of the 20th century, when the European Futures Exchange was established, it was the time for global exchanges to explore the transition from membership to shareholding system. Most exchanges in history are not for profit and are owned by members. Since the beginning of the 20th century, there has been a trend in exchange, that is, to consider the choice of governance structure instead of the traditional mutual assistance or cooperation model. In most cases, exchanges are transformed into profit-oriented companies owned by shareholders. The demutualization of an exchange can take many forms, each with its own problems. Some joint stock exchanges are listed on their own exchanges at the same time, becoming listed companies, such as NYSE Euronext and Nasdaq. Although some exchanges have been demutualized, they are still private companies. Other exchanges have become subsidiaries of listed companies. According to the informal report of the annual meeting of the International Federation of Exchanges (FIBV) 1999, among the 52 transactions at that time, l5 had all been demutualized, l4 agreed to demutualization through members' voting, and l5 was actively considering demutualization.
Competition and technological changes have greatly promoted the trend of stock exchange demutualization. The competition between traditional exchanges and between exchanges and other trading systems is becoming increasingly fierce, which requires exchanges to improve the efficiency of all their activities, including their decision-making process, and the establishment of a more effective trading system requires a lot of investment in new technologies, which expands the demand for capital. The remarkable feature of membership exchange is that its owner, decision-maker and direct user of trading services are often the same person, that is, member companies. Decisions are often made on the basis of one person, one vote, and are often made by committees composed of representatives of member companies. The ownership of a member exchange is not freely transferable and terminates with the expiration of its membership. It is difficult for membership exchanges to raise funds from people other than members. Obviously, this model has been difficult to adapt to the pace of exchange development and expansion. Most profit-oriented enterprises are organized in the form of stock capital companies, and their owners, decision makers and main customers can be divided into three isolated groups. Shareholders grant the company's decision-making power to the board of directors with the power of election and recall, and these powers are implemented by the company's management in daily activities. Shareholders' voting rights are consistent with their economic interests in the company: the economic interests represented by a shareholder constitute property rights, which are completely different from those of members. A joint-stock company can raise funds through various ways and channels.
The intensification of competition has transformed the exchange from a membership or cooperative entity into a profit-seeking company, and various new situations have emerged. The interests of exchange owners may run counter to the interests of the main customers of their trading services. The commercialization characteristics of exchanges are becoming more and more obvious: maximizing benefits has become a very clear goal, and more and more membership-based exchanges have gradually completed the transformation to shareholding system. Under the background of the trend of global stock exchange corporatization, IOSCO Technical Committee organized by the International Securities Regulatory Commission issued a consultation document entitled "Discussion Paper of Stock Exchanges" in June 5438+February 2000. After discussion and revision, in June, 20001year, the Technical Committee issued the Stock Exchange Stock Exchange Release Draft in the form of a formal report. This report is the first document organized by the International Securities Regulatory Commission on major issues such as demutualization, self-listing and governance.
Based on this economic background, the cooperation between Deutsche B? rse Group and Swiss Futures Options Exchange takes the form of joint-stock system. It can be said that the European Futures Exchange was the only cross-border exchange in the world. Headquartered in Switzerland for tax reasons, the actual operation of the exchange is more in Germany. The birth of the European Futures Exchange and the formation of transnational foreign exchange management in the euro zone are the inevitable products of the euro single currency economic zone. The cooperation between Deutsche B? rse and Swiss Futures Options Exchange leads the trend of cross-regional exchange management and puts forward a new direction for the cooperation of international derivatives market.
During the period from 199 1 to 1997, the exchanges of the two places completed the overall work of the exchanges, and unified the transactions, securities and futures supported by the systems of the exchange software company and the exchange clearing joint-stock company in a leading system, forming a global advantage. Although the exchange is registered in Switzerland, the two exchanges each hold 50% of the shares. The host of the exchange is in Frankfurt, and the products of the two countries basically provide all members with undifferentiated transactions on the same platform. The European Futures Exchange was the largest futures and options exchange in the world at that time, and its trading volume soared after its establishment. In the second year of its establishment, the trading volume reached 365 million lots, accounting for 18% of the global total trading volume. The European Futures Exchange provides customers with a wide range of international standard financial derivatives, and has the largest interest rate derivatives in the world. It is characterized by an open and low-cost electronic interface, connecting global market participants through more than 700 interfaces around the world, and the annual contract transaction volume reaches more than 65.438+0.5 billion lots.
However, the challenges faced by joint-stock companies are also arduous. For example, when a profit-seeking company performs the supervisory functions of the exchange, especially the primary market supervision (listing and access of companies), secondary market supervision (trading rules) and member supervision, what kind of conflicts of interest will appear or increase; In addition, a fair and effective capital market is in the public interest, and a well-run exchange is an important part of the capital market. In order to protect the interests of the public, is it necessary to add special mechanisms (such as specific corporate governance arrangements or equity rules) to the exchange? In addition, during the operation of the profit-oriented exchange, will it give due consideration to its financial sustainability and whether there are enough funds allocated to its regulatory functions, including making plans to manage debts that cannot be fulfilled? Many of the above problems are not new, but demutualization and intensified competition may aggravate some problems, so it is necessary to re-examine these problems and corresponding regulatory countermeasures. In the final analysis, the core of the problem is whether the commercial pressure (or governance structure) of profit-oriented institutions will fundamentally affect the ability of the exchange to allocate resources, and whether it will damage its obligation to effectively perform its regulatory functions and safeguard public interests according to appropriate standards.
Operation and internal structure
In terms of the internal management structure of the exchange, the European Futures Exchange, a cooperation model between two cross-regional exchanges, has great reference significance. In terms of operation, EUREXFrankfurtAG has a German subsidiary (EurexDeutschland) and an American subsidiary (USExchangeHoldingInc). ), clearing center (EurexClearingAG), bond trading limited liability company (EurexBonds) and repurchase trading limited liability company (EurexRepo). The trading platform of the European Futures Exchange was established in early 2004, and ClearingCorporation, which has 80 years of experience in derivatives settlement, is responsible for clearing. After clearing the obstacles of electronic platform trading system and cross-regional barrier-free settlement, the business of the European Futures Exchange has also expanded to over-the-counter trading, operating two companies: bond trading limited liability company (EurexBonds) and repurchase trading limited liability company (EurexRepo). The former is used in electronic communication network (ECN) for off-site and batch transactions, realizing the transactions between fixed income market and German discount bonds (Bubills). At the same time, it provides a direct interface between the spot market and the futures market to realize the basis trading in the central instruction book. EurexBonds provides trading and clearing services for government bonds of Germany, Spain, France, Britain, Ireland and other countries for market participants such as banks. EurexRepo is another independent branch of Eurex, which provides an electronic trading platform for repurchase agreements and is one of the main providers of electronic platforms in the repurchase market. It operates the repurchase market of Swiss francs and euros, and provides services from transaction to liquidation to settlement. At the end of 2007, the European Futures Exchange also completed the acquisition of the International Stock Exchange (ISE). After the international stock exchange became a subsidiary of the European Futures Exchange, it brought all kinds of fully electronic trading platforms. ISE's business scope includes options exchange and stock exchange.
The commercial function of the exchange is to provide services to earn income. The income of the exchange comes from listing transaction service fee, settlement fee, membership fee and market information provision fee. It can be taken directly from the institutions that use or purchase exchange information, such as securities companies, intermediaries, listed issuers and information providers, or indirectly from investors. The scope and quality of the above services are the key to determine the overall operating income level of the exchange. One of the outstanding services of the European Futures Exchange is the service of its clearing center. The clearing and delivery of the two subsidiaries in Zurich and Frankfurt are handled by EUREXClearingAG, a clearing company with the exchange holding 100%. EUREXClearingAG was originally established to provide settlement services for derivatives transactions of EUREXDeutschland and EUREXZürich. However, it has been proved that it not only enables the exchanges to survive the impact of euro circulation on the settlement of the two regional exchanges, but also develops exceptionally well in the settlement business, bringing a lot of settlement income to the parent company. At present, EurexCleaing provides clearing services for securities traded on the European Futures Exchange, EurexBonds and EurexRepo, and also provides central counterparty services for securities traded on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange (Xetra electronic system trading and floor outcry trading) and the Irish Stock Exchange, thus eliminating the risk of one-on-one liquidation of counterparties.
Euronext adopts a hierarchical membership structure, which can be divided into three types: non-clearing members (NCM), direct clearing members (DCM) and general clearing members (GCM). The biggest difference between them is that non-settlement members can only trade, but not liquidate, which is equivalent to trading members of other exchanges and can only be liquidated through members with settlement qualifications. Clearing members are divided into direct clearing members and general clearing members, both of which can be cleared.
Settlement members must choose the back-end system network certified by EUREXClearingAG. EUREXClearingAG has a contractual relationship with settlement members, who are the owners of their own accounts and market maker accounts and are responsible for their own accounts. Clearing members are brokers of customer accounts, and clearing institutions are not directly related to individual futures traders. As brokers of individual traders, clearing members have the responsibility to guarantee the performance of futures traders to the clearing house. Clearing houses collect deposits from clearing members, and clearing members collect deposits from trading members. The margin charged by a clearing member to a trading member shall not be lower than the requirements of the clearing institution for the clearing member. Direct settlement members settle their own transactions, customer transactions and affiliated transactions. For example, Deutsche Bank has a branch in China, and if the transaction is concluded, it can be liquidated by Deutsche Bank. General settlement members can settle accounts for non-settlement members such as proprietary trading and customer trading, but both parties need to sign a contract. For clearing houses that have signed agreements with European futures clearing houses and have alliance relations, EUREXClearing stipulates that they can be accepted as special clearing members (SCM). Special settlement members can complete all transactions on behalf of their members. Eurexclearag has entered into a number of agreements, and through the signing of the agreements, the relationship between eurexclearag and clearing members and joint clearing houses has been clarified.
In short, the pace of global economic integration and regional cooperation has not changed because of the financial crisis. With the crisis, the market attaches great importance to the supervision of derivatives trading, and the cooperation between exchanges in European economies, Asia-Pacific, America and other regions may be closer than before, not only for the purpose of expanding the active market of trading volume, but also for the sake of improving the safety factor of trading.