XTX Chooses New Office Over Full Relocation

Major London-based electronic market maker XTX Markets announced recently that they would be opening a new office in Paris, with the intention of operating there as an investment firm.

The move is designed to allow them to freely access European Union markets once the United Kingdom leaves the EU in March 2019.

Brexit Still Unclear

With details about how the UK will be able to trade with the EU after Brexit still unknown, the announcement is part of a trend among companies whose headquarters are in the UK.

Broker TP ICAP and share trading venue Aquis Exchange are also expanding their operations to Paris. Other companies have chosen the likes of Amsterdam and Dublin.

The company has filed an application with France’s Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution (ACPR) to operate. Co-CEO of XTX, Zar Amrolia, praised the ACPR as ‘very receptive’ and said he felt it important for XTX to “select a location with a strong regulatory environment within which to operate.”

Paris Gaining Support

The latest Global Financial Centres Index (GFCI) recently showed that London has lost its place as the world’s top-ranked financial centre to New York. Paris, meanwhile, has moved up one place to twenty-third, no doubt helped by its proximity to London and by companies looking to base themselves within one of the remaining 27 EU countries within the coming months.

Conversely, some EU firms have been looking to move the other way into London.

XTX were founded in 2015 and already account for over a tenth of all European share trading. They are one of a generation of market makers that have sought to expand into e-trading markets where banks have been more reticent in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

The company, who made a 2017 profit of £61 million from revenues of £154 million and who claim daily trading volumes of $150 billion, already employ 105 staff in London and say they have no plans to move their headquarters from England’s capital.