The shrinking turnover is one painful development for the exchange. The other one is the fierce competition from especially Chi-X (in stocks) and TOM (in options). Could be a coincidence, but most retail order flow will move to Chi-X this week.
TOM announced this week Chi-X is connected to their Smart Order Routing (SOR). In general the market at Chi-x has the same spread as Euronext, but trading is a lot cheaper.
Lower costs of trading for the banks and brokers, that is. Retail investors in Europe won’t benefit from lower fees. Especially TOM is taking great care of their own shareholders. Clients of brokers such as Binck and Alex won’t save a penny.
Euronext. Not much hyped IPO, and a lot of room for cost cutting. They could run the business with less than a third of the current 850 employees. Selling some magnificent real estate is another possibility. However, regulatory / national issues will halt most progress. Without reading too much in the prospectus, Amsterdamtrader starts covering of ENX with a HOLD rating.