Stock exchange, the mystery of the Etf and Amsterdam 'privileged headquarters'

'Euronext Amsterdam will be designated as the preferred listing and trading venue for Etf and Etp'. This is what is stated in the document Euronext sent out on Thursday evening to sector operators throughout Europe. An official document, read out at a press conference in Milan yesterday morning by Forza Italia's economic manager, Maurizio Casasco, the MP who first raised the alarm about a possible transfer to another European location of the rich Etf business (EUR 106.4 billion is the countervalue of trading in Milan in 2024).

The Euronext document in fact confirmed the questions raised also by Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, who in recent days has threatened the use of golden power. In the early afternoon of yesterday, however, the Etf-Amsterdam affair even took on the contours of a mystery. In fact, Borsa Italiana announced the arrival of a correction to the Euronext document in which an error was communicated: the word 'preferred' was wrong. Indeed, the entire sentence concerning Euronext Amsterdam is to be considered an error. In fact, in the new version it is explained that 'The listing and trading of ETFs and Etp on Euronext Amsterdam, Euronext Paris and Euronext Milano EtfPlus will continue as today'.

The Etf sector is a gluttony. In Europe, Milan is competing for the lead with Frankfurt, beating Amsterdam and Paris by many lengths: in 2023, compared to the €85 billion of countervalue traded on Piazza Affari, the Dutch capitalisation stood at €21 billion and Paris at €35 billion. Not to mention the listed instruments: at the end of last March, Milan could count on 2,037 products against the 719 of Paris and the 655 of Amsterdam. "At this point, one cannot understand the reason for a transfer to Amsterdam, given that the European Etf business gravitates above all to Milan," Casasco explained yesterday morning. "And if the issue is linked to Consob's supervisory costs, the government will have to focus its attention on this subject. Also because if Consob finances itself with the supervisory contributions paid by market operators, if the latter go elsewhere, it will no longer be entitled to ask for them.

Communication errors aside, the lines on the Paris-Rome axis have been red-hot after Minister Tajani's tough stance. According to indiscretions collected by Il Sole 24 Ore, Euronext's CEO, Stéphane Boujnah, would have come to Italy in the middle of the week to meet the Minister of the Economy, Giancarlo Giorgetti. The contents of the meeting are not known, but certainly not only the ETF market will have been discussed, which in reality is only the tip of the iceberg, but also the derivatives market and, more generally, the management autonomy of the Italian Stock Exchange, which is also provided for in the Testo Unico della Finanza (Tuf).

In recent months there had also been the first historic strike of Borsa Italiana employees, called by the unions, which accused Euronext, which also manages the stock markets in Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon and Oslo, of 'constant, systematic and global disinvestment from Italy'. Since Borsa Italiana switched to Euronext, 40 people have left - more or less voluntarily - including 25 senior figures, with first and second line managers.