FIA hosted the last of its 2022 forum series in Milan on 19 October, where the industry gathered to discuss regulatory and operational issues affecting the cleared and listed derivatives markets.
Hosted by Euronext, the event began with an introduction by Fabrizio Testa, CEO of Borsa Italiana, Euronext Group who discussed Euronext's acquisition of the Italian exchange in 2021 and the exchange group's vision to build the leading market infrastructure in Europe.
Through its "Growth for Impact 2024" strategic plan, Euronext has outlined a roadmap for delivering this vision through key milestones, the first of which was the migration in June of Euronext's core data centre from the UK to Italy, Testa said.
"This migration paves the way for the second big milestone, the migration of the Borsa Italiana markets to the new Euronext Optiq trading platform. This is where we see the value of bringing together seven exchanges that form the federation of Euronext - from Portugal to Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Norway and Italy - on the same infrastructure and into a fully coordinated organisation," he said.
"Borsa joining the equity and ETF markets in March [2023], will give a big boost to domestic issuers, investors and market players," he added.
Another key milestone is the expansion of Borsa Italiana's clearing house CC&G, now called Euronext Clearing, to become the clearing house for the entire Euronext group instead of its previous CCP, LCH.
"Euronext found itself with a choice: to either stick to a clearing house of a competitor, or to build on the internal clearing house," Testa said. He added that the key milestones are supported by numerous other projects, such as the strengthening of the quantitative research department to continue offering added value to customers.
Testa's remarks were followed by an afternoon of panel discussions featuring leading industry participants who discussed a wide range of issues, from volatility implications that have arisen from the energy crisis (see related story) to the emergence of new products in the clearing space and regulatory priorities.
On a panel entitled Looking to the Future, panellists gave their perspectives on the issues and challenges they see in the current EU trading and clearing space. These include the ability to move from one CCP to another with porting, transfer and compression becoming a key focus, as well as the need to improve trade transparency, particularly when it comes to give-ups and allocations, and understanding the mechanics of margin methodologies.
Panellists also discussed new clearing services, functionality and products that clients and clearing members would like to see and how CCPs are responding, as well as how clients can be supported during the migration and adoption of new services.
Euro clearing was another big theme during the day with speakers discussing the European Commission's efforts to reduce what it views as an over-reliance on systemically important third-country CCPs.
Panellists generally agreed that any shift in clearing must be market-led rather than mandatory, and that EU-based firms should be free to choose where they clear, based on their own commercial and risk considerations.
Other topics under discussion included progress on the capital markets union, crypto developments in the EU and the European Commission's proposed set of emergency measures to tackle high energy prices.
FIA will continue its European forum series next year following the success of its events in Frankfurt, Brussels, Paris and Milan in 2022. The forums provide an opportunity for discussions to take place between regulators and the industry, and for participants to engage in productive conversations about the issues affecting their markets.
