Finland: Co-Operation Between Hex And Eurex In Progress

Helsinki Exchanges ("HEX") and the German-Swiss derivatives exchange Eurex agreed upon large-scale co-operation in April 1999. The goal of Eurex is to extend its Trading System to Nordic Countries and this process has now first been initiated in Helsinki.

The co-operation makes it accessible for the members of HEX to trade in the variety of Eurex’s listed derivative products and adds Finnish derivative products to the Eurex platform. In practice, all the Finnish derivative brokers have already become Eurex members. Correspondingly, all the members of Eurex are able to trade in the central derivative instruments of HEX.

The trading in accordance with the co-operation agreement started in Eurex on 27 September 1999 as the first five HEX products were listed in the Eurex trading system. The initial products were chosen because of their superb liquidity in order to gain foreign interest. They were stock options of Nokia, UPM-Kymmene and Sonera, as well as FOX index options and forward contracts based on the new Dow Jones STOXX (sm) Nordic 30 Index.

At the time of the listing there were still certain legislative and technical restrictions concerning trading in the Eurex products. However, nearly all of these difficulties have now been overcome, and the next set of HEX products will be listed on 24 January 2000. The object is to list eleven new stock options consisting mainly of options of the Finnish companies that are largest when the market capitalisation is concerned.

A legal aspect worth noticing is that the trading in Eurex will be subject to German law, whereas in Finland the domestic laws will govern the relationship between the client and the Finnish broker.

For further information, please contact Pekka Lehtinen.

This article contains general information on the subject matter and shall not be relied upon for a specific case. Specialist advice should be sought with respect to any specific circumstances.