The report says that national stock exchanges in Europe are trying to restore their role in directing money to companies, at a time when governments are seeking to improve the conditions of their economies. European Union finance ministers are expected to discuss in Brussels the timetable for legislative negotiations on market reforms, which the stock exchanges hope will include amendments to the way investment banks deal with stock trading outside public platforms.
According to the report, major banks such as Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan see the issue as more related to political influence than a regulatory problem that needs to be solved, and they in turn are intensifying their pressure to prevent stock exchanges from imposing the return of more trading to open markets.
This battle comes as the political push increases within the European Union to create a financial market similar to the American market, especially among the six largest economies in the bloc. The exchanges say that the banks, most of which are Wall Street giants operating in Europe, are taking over individuals’ trades that were supposed to take place through their platforms. As for banks, they say that stock exchanges are exploiting geopolitical anxiety to attack a useful financial service that is becoming increasingly popular.
The dispute focuses on whether large amounts of stocks move from the “light” of the public market into private trading systems belonging to banks, technically known as “systematic internalizers,” which are subject to lower transparency requirements. The European Union created rules for these systems after the financial crisis, and they are aimed specifically at money managers and brokers who execute large transactions worth millions or billions of euros.
The report indicates that trading on these “dark” platforms doubled from 10 percent between 2022 and 2025, while the share of trading on public stock exchanges declined from 39 percent to 26 percent during the same period.
Banks defend these systems as attracting more liquidity to Europe, while stock exchanges see their continued expansion as weakening public markets. This comes amid broader political concerns about European companies moving to the United States in search of deeper markets and more capital.
The report concludes that stock exchanges linked the decline in European listings to the expansion of trading within private banking systems, while their competitors reject this link, considering that the concern about the relocation of companies is real, but the diagnosis of the problem is wrong.
