Deutsche Börse Marks 25th Anniversary of ETFs in Europe

Deutsche Börse is celebrating the 25th anniversary of exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in Europe. On 11 April 2000, Deutsche Börse became the first stock exchange in Europe to introduce trading in ETFs, thus setting a milestone in the financial industry. Since the start of trading of the first two products in Europe, two ETFs on European stock indices of the STOXX index family, the market for ETFs has developed rapidly. Today, investors can choose from over 2,400 ETFs on Xetra, the largest range of listed ETFs in Europe.

At the start of the anniversary year, Deutsche Börse’s ETF segment recorded the strongest quarter in its history. With an average monthly trading volume of €28.5 billion in the first three months of the year, turnover was 61.3 per cent above the monthly average of the previous year (€17.7 billion). This means that Xetra remains the leading stock exchange trading venue for ETFs in Europe.

“25 years after the launch of ETFs in Europe, we can look back on one of the biggest success stories in the financial industry. During this time, ETFs have developed into one of the most important investment products and are increasingly establishing themselves as a component of private retirement planning and long-term wealth accumulation,” says Stephan Kraus, Head of the ETF & ETP segment at Deutsche Börse. “With our new set of measures, we are making a further contribution to increasing the efficiency and transparency of ETF trading on Xetra.”

Reduction in ETF settlement fees increases cost efficiency in exchange trading

To increase post-trade efficiency, Deutsche Börse has implemented a significant reduction in settlement fees for centrally cleared ETF transactions on Xetra together with Clearstream, Deutsche Börse Group’s post-trade service provider. As a result, trading participants will benefit from significant cost advantages in the settlement of their ETF transactions from 1 May 2025. The aim of this measure is to further strengthen on-exchange ETF trading along the entire value chain. As a leading provider of post-trade infrastructure, Clearstream supports the ETF ecosystem from issuance to settlement and custody as well as order routing services for international and local ETFs, including settlement in the TARGET2-Securities environment.

Innovative trading offer for private investors sets new standards

In March, Deutsche Börse launched a new service for retail investors on Xetra, offering automatic price improvement over Xetra reference market prices for ETF trading. A new market maker role provides dedicated liquidity for retail investors within the Xetra order book, ensuring retail orders receive price improvements or are executed at least at the current Xetra price. In addition, transaction fees for these executions have been reduced, from which investors can also benefit. This is subject to the investor’s bank or broker participating in the service. Since launch, retail ETF orders exceeding €300 million in volume have already benefited from price improvements. The service also applies to all equities traded on Xetra.

Free Level 2 market data offering with Xetra prices in real time

The new retail investor service is supplemented by a free real-time Level 2 market data offer on Deutsche Börse’s website boerse-frankfurt.de which was launched on the occasion of the ETF’s 25th anniversary. From now on, registered private investors will have access to unlimited Xetra ETF real-time push price data after logging in. In addition to the best bid and ask prices, the offer also includes real-time order book depth data of all ETFs and ETPs traded on Xetra. The new market data offering is also available to interested banks, brokers and financial service providers for integration into their services.

Source: Deutsche Börse