The CEO of Euronext told trading chiefs at Financial News’s awards in London to go “above prejudices” and maintain a bond between the UK and European Union.
Stéphane Boujnah, who received the Outstanding Contribution Award at the Excellence in Trading & Tech Awards on 6 June, told attendees that the group’s team in London had in fact grown since Brexit, in part because of consolidation, as it has made acquisitions, and also through organic growth.
He added: “We genuinely believe that a part of our job is that irrespective of the political decisions that have been taken we need to keep the bond alive.”
READ Euronext CEO Stéphane Boujnah and Cboe’s Natan Tiefenbrun among winners at FN awards
Boujnah said it would be “totally absurd” to move towards division.
He used the anniversary of the D-Day landings during World War II to tell the industry: “If we want to pay some form of respect for those British guys who probably died on Normandy beaches for us to one day have the kind of dinner we are having tonight, let’s find ways to go above caricatures, above scepticism, above paranoia, above prejudices” and maintain the bond between the former financial centre of the EU in London and the remaining members.
Euronext runs exchanges across seven EU markets, including France and the Netherlands. It has capitalised on some of the post-Brexit flows out of the UK from companies looking to conduct business within the EU. It is in the process of moving its clearing operations from LCH in London to its own platform in Milan.
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