Eurex wishes Korea Exchange well after terminating agreement

Robbert Booij, the chief executive officer of Eurex Frankfurt AG, said the German exchange and Korea Exchange have jointly decided to decommission the Eurex/ KRX link on June 5.

Booij said: “The decision to delist the KOSPI Futures and Options, and FX USD/KRW Futures on Eurex, reflects the evolution of the global derivatives markets for longer trading hours.”

The partnership, established in 2010, allowed Korean equity and currency contracts to trade on Eurex, making them available in prime European trading hours.

The agreement has been terminated because Korea Exchange plans to extend its trading hours to include the European trading day, effectively making the partnership obsolete.

Booij said: “Eurex wishes our long-standing partner, KRX, every success in extending their trading hours and allowing direct access to their products across time zones.”

The Eurex Frankfurt AG chief said he “looked forward to remaining a strong partner to KRX for the years ahead”, adding: “Eurex remains fully committed to continuing serving our Korean, Asian, and global investors through our robust trading and clearing ecosystem, with our diverse and highly liquid products.”

The termination of the agreement will see the de-listing of the Korean futures and options traded on Eurex.

Eurex’s KOSPI 200 options traded 17.6 million lots last year, according to FOW Data, while the KOSPI 200 weekly options traded 14.8 million contracts.

Eurex daily futures on KOSPI 200 weekly options traded 14.6 million lots while the KOSPI 200 daily futures traded 4.3 million lots and the USD/KRW daily future traded 1.9 million contracts.

Korean derivatives on Eurex totalled just over 50 million contracts last year but this is less than 3% of the exchange’s total which was over 2 billion contracts in 2024, according to FOW Data.