Stock exchanges in Europe have largely ignored pressure from investment banks to reduce their trading fees and, in some cases, have increased them despite a sharp rise in trading volumes, according to analysis by Financial News.

Anger over trading fees is one of the main reasons behind the project to launch a rival trading system next year, announced last week by seven investment banks. The average trading fee per trade on Deutsche Börse has risen 1% this year and is virtually unchanged at Euronext and the London Stock Exchange, despite an increase of more than a third in the number of trades at each. The bourses have shifted their fee structure towards a per trade model to take advantage of the rapid increase in electronic trading. The average fee for trading a notional £1m (€1.4m) of stock has increased by 8% on the LSE this year and by nearly 4% on Euronext, although it has fallen by 10% on Deutsche Börse. The increases came despite a 24% surge in the value of equities traded on the LSE and 31% growth at Euronext. A banker involved in the new trading project said: "This development is consistent with what happens in any industry where there is a monopoly. The banks feel individually, and it turns out collectively, that while we are the exchanges' biggest customers we are not being treated that way in terms of the service or, importantly, the fees. "We have asked the exchanges repeatedly to lower their fees and, with only a couple of exceptions, they have refused. This year, volumes have gone up dramatically but the fees we are paying have not fallen commensurate to that."