The Swiss stock exchange is about to lose the sought-after equivalence status in the European Union. But SIX, the Swiss operator, has put emergency measures in place.
The equivalence status of the Swiss stock exchange is running out at the end of June and hence the access to the EU market. If the commission of the EU doesn’t make a move soon, banks in the region won’t be able to make their business via SIX anymore.
Switzerland has put a range of measures in place for the worst-case scenario, SIX said in a statement released on Monday. The company has installed direct links to all its clients to avoid a disruption of trade.
Political Move
The government last year had issued a bill stipulating that from the moment, when the EU removes the equivalence status, it will no longer be possible to trade Swiss shares on European stock markets. This will force European securities dealers to trade with Swiss shares in Switzerland.
The EU has manifestly used the status of the stock exchange as a means to force through the so-called framework agreement. Switzerland has been reluctant to sign the agreement, partly because trade unions worry that the changed set of rules would negatively influence Swiss wages, which in general are significantly higher than in surrounding countries.
In its statement, SIX alluded to the political nature of the non-renewal threat by saying that the EU repeatedly had judged the Swiss set of rules as equivalent to its own.
