The exchange industry sits at the heart of G20 post-crisis reform agenda, which aims to transform the global financial market infrastructure by making it more transparent and less risky. New rules ushered in under the US Dodd-Frank Act, Europe’s Market in Financial Instruments Directive and the European Market Infrastructure Regulation will force many derivative instruments traded between dealers in the over-the-counter markets on to exchanges or exchange-like platforms.

At the same time, standardised derivatives will also be forced into clearing houses, which sit in between a trade and guarantee payment in the event that either counterparty defaults. Since many exchanges own clearers, the G20 reform programme has long been regarded as a transformative - and extremely positive - development for the global exchange industry and the financial market infrastructure sector as a whole.