Six Swiss Exchange has announced the integration of its subsidiary Six Structured Products Exchange as of today. The merger of the two stock exchanges follows a period of 10 years, where exchange trading in structured products in Switzerland has been operated by Six Structured Products Exchange.

According to the exchange, regulatory requirements of the Financial Market Infrastructure Act (FMIA) required a new application for all existing licenses for stock exchanges and institutions similar to a stock exchange. As a result, Six Swiss Exchange decided to apply for one license for both stock exchanges. "We chose a solution to strengthen the market and oriented to synergies, only applying for one license for both stock exchanges," said a Six Swiss Exchange spokesperson.

The trading regulations of Six Structured Products Exchange will remain unchanged and will be integrated in the regulations and instructions of Six Swiss Exchange in line with other trading segments. There will not be any changes as regards participation for customers.

The reduction to just one stock exchange license results in a merger of the two legal entities - Six Swiss Exchange and Six Structured Products Exchange with the latter being transferred to Six Swiss Exchange and continued as the 'Trading Segment for Structured Products'.

According to the official, this will not affect the connectivity, the technical operation of the trading segments, the listing process or the regulations.

'The trading regulations of Six Structured Products Exchange will remain unchanged and will be integrated in the regulations and instructions of Six Swiss Exchange in line with other trading segments,' stated the spokesperson. 'There will not be any changes as regards participation for customers.'

The exchange also said the listing of structured products will remain unaffected and that issuers of structured products may continue to submit applications for admission to trading of structured products on Six Swiss Exchange via its Connexor Listing functionality.

Under the new framework, from June 2017, market participants will receive only a single invoice for the trading fees and for connectivity and capacity fees, and expects that in the future, all trading fees for on and off order book trading on Six Swiss Exchange for all markets and segments, including structured products, will be grouped into a single invoice and broken down by market and segment.

In addition, invoicing for trading on XBTR, the exchange's bilateral trading platform for structured products, will be carried out by SIX Swiss Exchange from today onwards. The platform which was launched in April 2016 is aimed at professional market participants in the interbank business and is based on the Swiss Exchange's existing infrastructure. It is, however, separate from on-order-book trading from a regulatory and functional perspective.

The exchange also confirmed that its structured products website and the Structured Products Advisory Board will be maintained.

According to SRP data, more than 55,000 products worth approximately CHF4.3bn have been marketed among Swiss structured retail products investors, year to date. The most active providers in Switzerland are Vontobel, Leonteq, UBS, Credit Suisse and Raiffeisen Switzerland.

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