at the same time the new electronic stock exchange EUREX was appeared – it is the
first world's international stock exchange on the market of financial assets.
The formation of new stock exchanges unions was the first manifestation of the
consolidation process on the stock market of financial derivatives. Special news was
not so much the appearance of the stock exchange, but the speed of its further
development. EUREX need only for the year to become the world's largest financial
derivatives stock exchange by the results of trades in 1999.
Today EUREX provides the market with a wide range of financial derivatives of
the global level and cooperates with the most liquid securities – shares and fixed
income bonds, provides inexpensive and open access to its electronic platforms. The
participants of this stock exchange are in 700 different places of the globe, the volume
of trades on this stock exchange EUREX is annually exceeded 1.5 billion contracts.
Since 2007 EUREX has merged International Securities Exchange Inc. The new
member of the EUREX group has become an electronic trading platform where
financial derivatives are traded on stock indexes and shares. In addition to electronic
trading, EUREX provides market participants with clearing services through the center
EUREX Clearing AG for financial derivative contracts traded on EUREX, bonds and
Repo operations, and, at the same time, for financial instruments of the Irish Stock
Exchange and the Frankfurt Stock Exchange.
Another striking example of the consolidation of world stock and commodity
stock exchanges was the merger of the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels stock exchanges in
2000 into the united pan-European stock exchange EURONEXT. Since 2002
EURONEXT has joined the London International Stock Exchange Futures and Options
and also the Portuguese Stock Exchange.
The electronic stock exchange OMX AB was appeared in 2003 due to the merger
of stock exchanges of Stockholm and Helsinki. The Copenhagen Stock Exchange
joined in it next two years. The London Stock Exchange together with the Italian Borsa
Italiana also united in 2007.
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) merged with the major operator of the
electronic trading system Archipelago Holdings Inc. in 2006. The NYSE Group has
gained new opportunities in electronic trading, particularly over-the-counter
instruments. This new global stock exchange combines traditional exchange trade with
a new electronic trade system. The US stock exchanges NYSE, NASDAQ and AMEX
are linked by electronic systems and transmit information on quotes for purchase and
sale positions.
The next stage of global consolidation is the intercontinental level. It began in
1999, when was signed an agreement about the merger of two trade systems on the
leading international financial derivatives exchanges EUREX - CBOT (The Chicago
Board of Trade), which started its work in 2000. EURONEXT merged with the London
- 689 -