Euronext denies monopoly claims

Date: 30/05/02

By Peter Chapman

EURONEXT, the company which runs the bourses in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, has dismissed claims that it wants stock exchanges to have a monopoly over the buying and selling of shares.

Investment banks and alternative trading houses, such as Posit or E-Crossnet, want to cut out the 'middle man' by processing orders themselves in a method known as 'internalisation'.

A coalition of banks, brokers and bond market players last week accused Euronext of attempting to monopolise the market, as the temperature rose during consultations by the European Commission to update the nine-year-old investment services directive.

But Euronext director Olivier Lefebvre told European Voice his company is not a 'monomaniac'.

It just wants to ensure there is a level playing field to ensure market prices truly reflect supply and demand and that investors are well protected, he said.

'The associations are portraying us in a very caricature way. [Claiming we want a monopoly] is not at all our point of view...and not the message what we have portrayed to the Commission.

'Basically, competition is good and should bring alternative models for matching buy and sell orders.

'But we really want to have true competition to make sure market participants can compare the conditions at which they can trade on the various venues.

'We would not like to see a sort of internalisation against shut doors in a non-transparent fashion.'

He said transparency of the conditions at which anyone can trade is 'absolutely necessary' and that similar investment protection regimes should be in place away from exchanges.

Euronext, the company which runs the bourses in Paris, Amsterdam and Brussels, has dismissed claims that it wants stock exchanges to have a monopoly over the buying and selling of shares.