The Central and Eastern European Stock Exchange Group (CEESEG) is working on a common central counterparty (CCP) for its four markets in Vienna, Budapest, Prague and Ljubljana.
The group, which is majority owned by the Viennese bourse, plans to go live with its CCP solution in the second half of 2012. CEESEG is already working to implement Xetra, the trading platform used by Deutsche Börse, across all its venues. Brokers will be able to trade the CEESEG exchanges via their existing connection to Xetra. The group is also developing a cross-membership scheme to enable members of one exchange to more easily trade across the whole group.
The interface used in all four CEESEG markets will be the same as that being built between Xetra and a new CCP system in Vienna. Xetra implementation is expected to be complete in Prague in mid-2012 with Budapest to follow. Ljubljana switched to Xetra in December 2010.
Despite the existence of established pan-European clearing houses, CEESEG dismissed the possibility of using a third-party provider. “We think that the CCP CEE has the best knowledge for the specific requirements of the local CEE markets,” said Michael Buhl, joint CEO of the Vienna Stock Exchange and CEO of CEESEG, adding that the new CCP solution would bring “crossed clearing possibilities for all four CEESEG markets and more safety and higher liquidity” to the group's venues.
According to data from the Federation of European Securities Exchanges, CEESEG exchanges accounted for 57.49% of central and east European (ex Russia) equity turnover in 2010, compared to 41.30% traded on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.