Spanish exchange eyes European blue chip options in 2026
11th November, 2025|Luke Jeff
The Spanish exchange plans to build on recent momentum in its Spanish equity options market by launching next year options on some of Europe’s largest blue chips.
Bolsas y Mercados Espanoles, owned by Switzerland’s SIX group, launched in March cash-settled, European-style options which helped the Madrid-based MEFF derivatives market report a 35% increase in options trading for the first nine months of this year, according to FOW data.
Clotilde Salmerón, head of MEFF at BME, said: “We are seeing across Europe an increase of trading in Spanish derivatives driven by single stock options on BME. There is competition in Europe with other exchanges having Spanish names but the relevant increase is here at BME.”
June was an especially strong month for BME’s growing equity options market when 2.1m lots were traded compared to 915,000 contracts in the same month last year, according to FOW data. Overall, MEFF’s single stock options trading volume was up 42% in the first nine months of this year compared to the same period in 2024.
Salmerón added: “The interest is likely driven by the performance of the main Spanish index the IBEX 35 which has been this year one of the best performers across Europe while corporate actions in the underlying names have also supported the derivatives.”
Market-maker Susquehanna backed the cash-settled options launch in March and Salmerón is keen to work with more liquidity providers as the group develops its product offering further.
“Most of the relevant participants are already with us so it’s just a question of time, working with them on the European-style single stock options.”
Looking ahead, the head of MEFF said: “We are working on the retail strategy for BME derivatives exchange, but it is more than just the size of the contract, it is more about financial literacy where we need to increase trading in exchange-traded derivatives versus over-the-counter as well as engagement with retail brokers and liquidity providers.”
Salmerón said the firm already offers smaller contracts popular with retail traders. MEFF’s mini-IBEX 35 futures, for example, reported trading activity up 4.2% in the first nine months of this year.
She added: “Zero-day-to-expiry options could be a good product but what we want to launch are the cash-settled, European single stock options on European underlyings. We are still working on this but we are hopeful of launching these products in the first half of next year.”
