Like Frankfurt’s skyline of bank towers, the rise of the city’s securities exchange is an impressive thing to behold. Prior to its privatisation in the early 1990s, which gave rise to Deutsche Börse, the exchange was not much bigger than Germany’s seven other regional exchanges and was dwarfed by the securities exchanges of London or New York.
Today, though, Deutsche Börse is a securities exchange giant, only second in Europe to its arch-rival, the London Stock Exchange (LSE). Even more impressive is what Deutsche Börse has achieved in derivatives trading. Its electronic exchange, Eurex, is the world leader in trading of this extremely high-volume asset class.
