SIX Swiss Exchange (formerly SWX Swiss Exchange), based in Zürich, is Switzerland's principal stock exchange (the other being BX Swiss). SIX Swiss Exchange also trades other securities such as Swiss government bonds and derivatives such as stock options.
SIX Swiss Exchange is completely owned by SIX Group, an unlisted public limited company itself owned by around 120 national and foreign financial institutions.
The exchange in its current state was founded in 1993 by merging the Geneva Stock Exchange, the Basel Stock Exchange and the Zürich stock exchange into the (German for "Swiss Securities Exchanges Association"), publicly known in English as Swiss Exchange. The newly created association took over trading in 1995. It was the first stock exchange in the world to incorporate a fully automated trading, clearing and settlement system.
The association was renamed SWX Swiss Exchange in 1999.
On 23 August 2023, the company formed EuroCTP as a joint venture with 13 other bourses, in an effort to provide a consolidated tape for the European Union, as part of the Capital Markets Union proposed by the European Commission.
History
First Swiss exchanges
The first exchanges in Switzerland were created locally in major Swiss cities throughout Switzerland, with the authorization of the Cantonal authorities. Geneva paved the way in the year 1850, when the () was founded. Its trading floor was opened in 1855 and approved by the Grand Council of Geneva in 1856. The Basler Börse followed in 1866 or 1876 (sources disagree) in Basel, as well as another one in Zürich in 1873. On 16 August 1995, the closing bells rang for the last time on the trading floors, ending an era spanning more than a century. They were superseded with the world's first automated trading, clearing and settlement system.
After the international financial markets recovered from the 1997/1998 Asian crisis and the 1998 Russian crisis, there was a period of two years of lasting bull market from October 1998. This bull market was mainly driven by the new economy boom and transition of this time. However, the boom was more limited on Swiss stock indices, since they are dominated by pharmaceutical, food and financial values, while Internet companies and technology companies play only a secondary role. Hence, it was only in May 2000 that the Swiss Performance Index crossed again the peak of 5,237 points that it had reached before the Russian crisis. It reached its then all-time high of 5,770 points on 23 August 2000. The bursting of the dot-com bubble sent stock prices down worldwide, and did not spare Swiss stock indices. The SPI entered a bear market. It had lost more than 20% from its previous peak by 22 March 2001, on which day it reached a temporary bottom.
After a short recovery phase, the SPI started to erode continuously from May 2001. The 9/11 attacks accelerated this evolution, started with the bursting of the dot-com bubble, further. The SPI reached its bottom of 2,603 points one and a half years later, on 12 March 2003, at the peak of the SARS-epidemic and the Iraq war.
SIX Group
In May 2007, the SWX Group, the SIS Group and Telekurs Group announced their merger to a new holding called Swiss Financial Market Services AG. The merger was official in 2008 and the new company was renamed to SIX Group AG. SWX Swiss Exchange was renamed to SIX Swiss Exchange in the same year.
Subsidiaries, acquisitions and joint ventures
Eurex
From 1998 to 2012, SIX Swiss Exchange owned 15% of Eurex, the world's second largest futures and derivatives exchange, after the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, along with its German partner Deutsche Börse (85%). Deutsche Börse purchased the 15% ownership from SIX Swiss Exchange in 2012, becoming its sole owner.
SWX Europe
SWX Swiss Exchange, as was its new name since 1999, for the trading of 32 Swiss bluechip stocks, regulated by the British Financial Services Authority. The new platform was opened on 25 June 2001.
The listed companies were offered the choice between two market segments for SMI stocks: The EU-regulated market segment and the UK-exchange-regulated market segment. Both segments were subject to the regulations of the British Financial Services Authority, and the EU segment was in addition subject to EU regulations.
Virt-x was renamed to SWX Europe in 2008. SWX Europe came to a halt in 2009 and the trading was transferred to SIX Swiss Exchange.
International Securities Exchange
On 30 April 2007, SWX Swiss exchange acquired, jointly with Deutsche Börse, the US option exchange ISE. With the acquisition of International Securities Exchange Holding (ISE), one of the largest trading platforms for finance derivatives emerged. The price for ISE was $2.8 billion and it was financed through Eurex, which was then owned 85% by Deutsche Börse and 15% by SWX Swiss Exchange. The revenue of ISE was about $178 million in 2006, and the profit around $55 million. The ISE remains independent and keeps its structure and branding.
Scoach
On 1 January 2007, SWX Swiss Exchange and Deutsche Börse jointly started and managed an exchange for structured products, a joint venture called Scoach.
In February 2013, Scoach was split into Scoach Europa AG, fully owned by Deutsche Börse, and Scoach Schweiz AG, fully owned by SIX Swiss Exchange. Scoach Schweiz AG was renamed to SIX Structured Products in November 2013.
AsiaNext
In 2021, SIX Group established AsiaNext, a digital asset exchange for institutions, as a joint venture with SBI Digital Asset Holdings. In 2023, AsiaNext has received a license as a Recognized Market Operator (RMO) by the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
Headquarters
Headquarters were moved to Selnaustrasse in 2002. In 2017, they moved again to the Hard Turm Park in Zürich-West.
Technological advances
For the first time in the world, in 1962, an exchange TV broadcast was introduced in Basel and Zürich. Banks started to use computers, while exchanges followed more hesitantly. In 1964, Telekurs was mandated by the Zürich stock exchange to investigate how computer technologies could be used on the exchange. Only in the 1980s did computers finally find their way into exchanges. On 8 December 1995, an advanced electronic system for the processing of foreign stock in the domestic exchange market was introduced, on 2 August 1996 that of Swiss stock and options. Finally, on 16 August 1996, bonds were also electronically traded and the trading floor was discontinued.
On 3 December 2020, SIX Swiss Exchange, in collaboration with the Bank for International Settlements and Swiss National Bank, completed a wholesale central bank digital currency proof-of-concept on a distributed digital asset platform.
Other services
SIX Swiss Exchange is part of the SIX Group, which provides a number of other financial market infrastructure services in Switzerland. SIX Group is divided into four business units: Securities Services, Markets, Banking Services and Financial Information. These business units include services like clearing, acting as central counterparty, custody services, market data services, share registry, payment services, and running the real-time gross settlement (RTGS) system on behalf of the central bank of Switzerland, the Swiss National Bank.