Business continuity
The current health situation has no impact so far on Euronext's market operations. Most of our staff are currently working from home whilst operating a fully functional infrastructure with no latency issues. Euronext has Business Continuity Management plans for all its locations and company-wide which are regularly tested. Euronext continues its active monitoring of the situation, and has prepared itself to implement additional measures on either a local or group level, as the situation may require. These precautionary measures are designed to limit the possible points of contact between Euronext staff, to help protect the health of our colleagues, clients and business relations and ensure the continuity of our business.
Extreme market conditions and trading safeguards
We are maintaining a full system of ‘circuit breakers’ which enables trading in individual securities to be halted for a short period when price movements are too erratic. This avoids the need to halt the entire market, whilst allowing traders to pause and absorb the information flow. Our circuit breakers are performing as they were designed to.
Postponement of AGM and dividend policy
In the unprecedented context brought on by COVID-19, several European national competent authorities are considering exceptional measures, such as allowing the postponement of AGMs for issuers or reviewing public funding in light of dividend policies. These measures can impact listed companies’ dividend policy, and subsequently the pricing of derivatives. Euronext shares some best practices to maximise the smooth pricing of these derivatives.