Anthony Attia, global head of derivatives and post-trade of Euronext, sits down with Carmella Haswell to examine how the firm’s numerous acquisitions have propelled it forward to operate across the full value chain, and how it looks to build on this foundation.

Anthony, it has been a busy year for both Euronext and the industry at large. How do you currently see the securities finance market in Europe from a Euronext perspective?

 Over the past decade, Euronext has fundamentally transformed its business profile, shaping European capital markets as it became Europe’s largest exchange infrastructure. This transformation has been driven by a combination of strategic acquisitions and sustained organic investment. 

On the M&A side, the successive acquisitions of the Irish Stock Exchange in 2018, the Norwegian stock exchange and its central securities depositories (CSDs) in 2019, Nord Pool — a European power spot market infrastructure based in Norway — and the Danish CSD in 2020 paved the way to the game-changing acquisition of the Borsa Italiana Group in 2021. 

Combined, these acquisitions significantly strengthened Euronext’s European footprint. Over the same period, we have kept investing heavily in technology, talent, and client distribution, building a truly pan-European infrastructure across asset classes. 

Today, Euronext operates across the full value chain, from listing and trading to clearing, settlement, custody, market data, and software-asa-service (SaaS). Our presence spans equities, fixed income, foreign exchange, commodities, and listed derivatives.

Our new strategic plan, ‘Innovate for Growth 2027’, builds on this foundation. Following the successful integration of Borsa Italiana, our focus is now mainly on organic growth, geographic expansion, and product diversification. A key priority is the development of Euronext Securities — our CSD business — which reinforces the resilience and efficiency of our offering in both equities and fixed income. 

Similarly, Euronext Clearing has established itself as one of Europe’s top three clearing houses, alongside Eurex and LCH SA. It currently clears all Euronext markets across cash equities, listed derivatives, commodities futures, and Italian repo — one of the most liquid segments of the European fixed income market. 

Looking ahead, we see tremendous opportunity to expand this franchise. We will broaden our Italian repo clearing to international counterparties, and extend coverage to European government debt — starting with Spanish, Irish, and Portuguese markets from June 2025. In parallel, we are also preparing to expand our listed derivatives offering with new fixed income products and power derivatives, as part of our ongoing diversification strategy.

In November last year, Euronext announced its Innovate for Growth 2027 agenda. What progress has the firm made over the past six months? 

We are making strong progress on multiple fronts. Our agreement with Nasdaq Nordic accelerates our diversification strategy. This deal will enable us to acquire the open interest in Nasdaq’s Nordic power futures business, leveraging our presence in Europe’s spot energy market to launch power derivatives. 

In parallel, we continue to advance our repo clearing expansion. We are collaborating with Euroclear, and clearstream, to integrate triparty collateral management with our clearing house; a key capability for supporting a more scalable and flexible European repo clearing model. We will announce additional triparty partnerships in the coming months. 

We are also developing new thematic indices aligned with market demand for energy, security, defence, and European strategic autonomy. Our Euronext Indices franchise combines national benchmarks such as the CAC 40 and AEX with a growing suite of thematic and bespoke indices to support ETF issuers. The recent acquisition of the Global Rate Set Systems (GRSS), which calculates Euribor, further strengthens our capabilities in this space.

Additionally, we are now clearing crypto ETFs, reflecting our ability to respond quickly to emerging market trends. BlackRock recently launched its European crypto ETP on our platform. 

We are also extending our equity derivatives franchise beyond Euronext markets, with new options and futures on non-Euronext underlyings such as German equities — further positioning Euronext as a truly pan-European clearing house. 

If we look at diversification, we also just acquired Admincontrol, a provider of governance and secure collaboration SaaS solutions in the Nordics and in the UK. This acquisition will double the size of our governance offering and will be integrated into our Euronext Corporate Solutions business.

The firm welcomed the expansion of its cleared repo offering this year, powered by Euronext Clearing. What is driving this investment, and how will it benefit participants in Europe’s repo market? 

The European repo market is highly active, yet still relatively fragmented and under-cleared. Approximately half of European repo trades remain uncleared. While there is currently no mandatory clearing requirement in Europe — unlike the incoming US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) mandate in the US — there is growing market and regulatory momentum toward greater use of CCP clearing in this space. 

For the buy side, cleared margin is typically more efficient than uncleared margin. CCP clearing also delivers significant risk management and operational benefits for all market participants. 

We are investing to support this market evolution. Euronext Clearing brings a unique competitive position, thanks to our 25-year track record in clearing Italian government debt — one of Europe’s most liquid fixed income markets. We intend to leverage this strong foundation to broaden our clearing coverage to European government debt, starting this year. 

Our approach is built on openness and flexibility. The market expects a fully open model where clearing houses connect seamlessly with multiple trading venues and networks of brokers. We are therefore diversifying our partnerships to ensure that our clearing services are accessible across the widest possible ecosystem. Looking ahead to 2026, we will introduce sponsored access; enabling buy side firms to clear directly through Euronext Clearing, with margin models tailored specifically to their needs. 

We are taking a balanced approach — working closely with both clearing members and their buy side clients to design a model that meets buy side requirements while preserving the essential role of clearing members within the CCP framework. This investment in technology, partnerships, and regulatory engagement positions Euronext to be a key driver of innovation and growth in Europe’s repo clearing landscape.

What trends are you seeing within the repo market, and how are they shaping Euronext’s strategy? 

We see a clear appetite for more cleared repo activity, in a European market that remains fragmented across trading venues. A key role of the clearing house is to help consolidate this activity and deliver consistent, robust clearing, and margining services. 

There is also a strong transatlantic dimension to this trend. Many of the largest banks active in the US repo market are also major participants in Europe, and we expect the US move toward mandatory clearing to influence European market dynamics. 

More broadly, the European clearing landscape is evolving under the new EMIR 3.0 framework. I believe that the most effective clearing houses will be those that are large, multi-asset, multi-country, and multi-market, like Euronext Clearing that we transformed since 2021 into a truly multi-asset European clearing house. This enables us to deliver maximum efficiencies and risk management benefits to our clients, through capabilities such as portfolio margining.

This year, Euronext not only announced its agreement to acquire Nasdaq’s Nordic power futures business, but also joined ISLA as a member. How do these moves support your growth ambitions across the securities value chain? 

Our expansion into power derivatives is a natural fit for Euronext. We already have a strong listed derivatives franchise and extensive experience clearing commodities futures, particularly in the French market. 

We also operate Nord Pool, Europe’s leading power spot market, and we have trading technology via our Optiq platform. By combining these assets, we can offer an integrated, scalable solution for power derivatives, from spot to futures, supported by robust clearing. 

The Nasdaq Nordic deal will accelerate our market entry and position us as a major player in this space. Our repo clearing expansion is a longer-term play, but equally strategic. 

We are building the capabilities and client partnerships step by step. We expect adoption to scale gradually over time as market demand evolves. 

Our decision to join ISLA reflects our broader commitment to the securities finance ecosystem. It provides an important forum for engagement with key stakeholders and alignment with industry best practices as we expand our services.

Looking ahead, what are the next steps for Euronext’s Innovate for Growth 2027 agenda? What can clients expect in the second half of 2025?

The second half of this year is mainly about delivering on the commitments we have made. We will continue to expand our repo clearing capabilities, in close collaboration with clients and infrastructure providers.

We will launch mini-bond futures in September, supporting SME capital access through our fixed income derivatives franchise. And we will progress the operational rollout of our power derivatives offering including regulatory engagement, testing, and migration planning. 

Underlying all of these initiatives is a focus on operational excellence. Recent market volatility has underscored the vital role that European market infrastructures — and clearing houses in particular — play in ensuring stability and resilience. 

At Euronext, we are proud of the robustness and scalability we have demonstrated, even amid elevated volumes and market stress. This operational strength is the foundation that enables us to pursue such an ambitious growth agenda with credibility and confidence.