Swiss Approve Trading of Swiss Stocks on UK Exchanges

ZURICH (Reuters) – The Swiss government has given the green light for trading of Swiss companies’ shares on British exchanges to resume, the Swiss financial markets supervisor FINMA said https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2021/02/20210203-meldung-uk-handelsplaetze on Wednesday.

Brussels blocked European Union investors from trading on Swiss bourses in June 2019 after a treaty row, with Switzerland then banning EU exchanges from trading Swiss shares.

But Britain is no longer bound by EU rules since its full departure from the bloc, and the countries are working to rebuild bilateral ties. Switzerland is not a member of the European Union.

London platforms handled around 1.2 billion euros ($1.44 billion) daily in Swiss shares, or about 27% of the total volume in the run up to the EU ban, Cboe figures showed.

The return of Swiss trading will be a small boon for London’s equity markets, after Brexit meant billions of euros worth of daily share trading in EU stocks left the capital for platforms in Amsterdam and Paris.

($1 = 0.8308 euros)

(Reporting by Michael Shields in Zurich and Huw Jones in London; Editing by Riham Alkousaa and Rachel Armstrong)