What is it about the equity options market in Europe which you believe makes it suitable for trading through exchanges?
The actual products that are traded, whether they be traded on exchange or OTC, are largely exchange-designed contracts. For certain users, within the mandate of say a fund manager or an insurance fund, they must trade on exchange, they must be able to show best execution, that the trade must be reported to the market so that there is transparency to the users of those funds. There are peculiarities to equities that are not there in other markets, for example corporate events; the handling of corporate actions is a key thing when somebody is taking on a long-term position. The exchanges determine corporate actions policy and we have harmonised that policy across markets, that brings a lot of certainty to people. That is not the case in an OTC market...