Frankfurt hasn’t half the glamour and hubbub of London – but when it comes to derivatives, it’s the gently pulsating heart of the European market. As Tom Osborn reports from the banks of the Main, the city’s lively, multinational community of derivatives specialists are also tightly entwined with the continent’s largest domestic economy.
Germany’s capital markets hub has often yearned to steal London’s crown as Europe’s financial capital. For all the marketing efforts of Finanzplatz Deutschland, and the advent of the euro, Frankfurt has never seemed to get much closer to its goal.
Listed derivatives is the one market where it has succeeded – at least on paper. In 1999 Eurex sc reamed past Liffe on the outside lane to become Europe’s biggest futures and options market by contracts traded. Its notional volume is now more than twice as big, although translating that into...