Migration of Borsa Italiana equity and ETF markets to Optiq® trading platform

• Phase one of the full migration to Euronext’s state-of-the art trading platform was delivered on schedule, with immediate revenue synergies
• Euronext confirms its position as the leading listing and trading venue, and the largest liquidity pool in Europe with superior market quality
• This migration brings significant benefits to Italian issuers, members, investors and to the European financial markets ecosystem, helping finance the real economy

Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris, 5 April 2023 – Euronext, the leading pan-European market infrastructure, today announced the successful migration of the equity and ETF markets of Borsa Italiana, part of Euronext Group, to Optiq®, Euronext’s proprietary state-of-the-art trading platform. 

This migration was completed on schedule on 27 March 2023, 22 months after Borsa Italiana joined Euronext, and 9 months after the successful migration of the Euronext Core Data Centre from the United Kingdom to Italy. This historic migration is a key milestone in the Borsa Italiana Group integration process, and will deliver substantial immediate revenue synergies, contributing to the delivery of the €115 million annual run-rate synergy targets for 2024. 

The integration of the capital markets of Italy, the third-largest European economy, to Europe's largest liquidity pool, operated by Euronext, will bring significant benefits to the European financial markets ecosystem, helping finance the real economy. 

With this move, Euronext confirms its position as the leading trading venue in Europe. The Euronext unique trading platform Optiq® handles 25% of European equity trading  activity, with thousands of active institutional and retail investors. The Optiq® platform is the unique entry point for local and global institutional investors, as well as for retail investors, to trade all Euronext securities across seven markets in Europe, providing best execution and superior market quality to market participants.

Euronext is the undisputed leading listing venue, with close to 1,930 equity issuers now listed on Euronext’s exchanges in Amsterdam, Brussels, Dublin, Lisbon, Milan, Oslo and Paris, for an aggregated market capitalisation of over €6.3 trillion as of end December 2022. 3,044 Exchange Traded Products (ETP)  from more than 40 issuers are listed on the Euronext regulated markets, providing product diversity, deep liquidity and superior market quality.

Borsa Italiana’s market issuers now have seamless access to a considerably larger number of investors, a larger network of trading participants and to superior market quality. Borsa Italiana market participants will benefit from Optiq’s® single platform and flexible modular design to develop new innovative products and services for the Italian market. Technology upgrades, enriched functionalities and new services have already been implemented in the Optiq® platform, leveraging the combined competencies of Euronext and Borsa Italiana, to improve operational efficiency and service levels for members and issuers.

Fabrizio Testa, CEO of Borsa Italiana and Head of Fixed Income Trading, said: “By joining Euronext’s largest European liquidity pool, we are further strengthening Italian capital markets. Having access to a considerably larger number of investors, a larger network of trading participants and to superior market quality, will bring significant benefits to Italian issuers, members, investors and the real economy, as well as to the European financial markets ecosystem.”

Stéphane Boujnah, CEO and Chairman of the Managing Board of Euronext N.V., said: “Following the successful migration of our Core Data Centre into the European Union completed in June 2022, we have now achieved the migration of the equity and ETF markets of Borsa Italiana, 22 months after the closing of the Borsa Italiana Group acquisition. This migration contributes to the delivery of the €115 million run-rate annual synergies related to the Borsa Italiana Group acquisition targeted by the end 2024. 

This first phase of the migration plan of Borsa Italiana markets to Optiq® covered Equities and ETFs. The completion of this first phase paves the way for the migration of Fixed Income, Warrants and Certificates in the third quarter 2023, followed by Financial Derivatives and Commodities. In addition, scheduled as part of Euronext’s strategy to expand its presence across the entire value chain, the expansion of Euronext Clearing to all Euronext markets is planned for cash equities in the fourth quarter of 2023 and for financial derivatives and commodities by the third quarter of 2024.