In a signing ceremony in Beijing led by German chancellor Angela Merkel and Deutsche Börse chief executive Carsten Kengeter, Frankfurt sneaked ahead in its battle with London to connect to China's capital markets.
Deutsche Börse, Germany's largest exchange, will establish a 50/50 joint venture with the China Foreign Exchange Trade System, the interbank trading and foreign exchange division of China's central bank, to host interbank products and enable trading in the renminbi and interest rate products. The trading platform will be hosted in Frankfurt.
Deutsche Börse has also teamed up with the Shanghai Stock Exchange and China Financial Futures Exchange to form the China Europe International Exchange (CEINEX), the first authorised platform dedicated to renminbi trading outside of mainland China. It will also be hosted in Frankfurt and will begin trading on November 18th; initially dealing in exchange traded funds (ETFs) and bonds.
During the recent state visit to the UK by Xi Jinping a similar link-up between the Shanghai and London stock exchanges was hoped for but no official agreement has been reached to date.
