SIX Swiss Exchange marked 25 years of ETF trading in 2025 with one of the strongest years in its history. Seven new issuers joined, 307 new ETFs were launched, and the number of listed ETFs reached a record 2,099. ETF turnover rose 48% year-on-year to CHF124.3 billion ($149.2 billion), within touching distance of its all-time high, and the number of ETF transactions climbed 36% to a record 3.4 million. Structured products told the same story: a record 169,099 new products were listed in 2025, more than 50% above the previous high.
Records of that kind are built on service. Issuers list where launching is simple and investors can trade efficiently. Brokers route where the exchange makes their job easier. SIX spent 2025 working on both sides of that relationship.
“The award is a strong testament to our client-centricity, reflected in innovations geared towards market needs and a strong quality focus,” says Rob Cranston, head of equity business development, sales and strategy.
Quote on Demand, SIX’s request-for-quote (RFQ) service for ETFs, is central to its offering. It lets investors request anonymous, competitive prices on more than 7,700 pan-European ETFs. SIX says it is now the largest on-exchange ETF RFQ venue in Europe by volume. Demand has broadened as execution has become more automated. Local Swiss firms use it for manual trading, while large banks building ETF algorithms are increasingly plugging it into their automated workflows.
The award is a strong testament to our client-centricity, reflected in innovations geared towards market needs and a strong quality focus
Rob Cranston
“As they build out their ETF algos and look at automated execution, more firms are coming to us and saying this is a really interesting thing they can add,” says Cranston. “It’s very cost-effective and it’s proving a lot of value.”
SIX has also listened to its retail-facing members. Trading hours for structured products have been extended by nearly six hours, with retail execution picking up between 7pm and 10pm. Behind the listings, its Connexor reference data service supported 102 issuers in 2025. It processed 5.2 million new issuances and more than 50 million product updates and lifecycle events.
Service extends to how members trade. SIX launched Auction Volume Discovery in 2023 to improve pricing and fill rates in opening and closing auctions. The mechanism has gathered momentum as other European venues have adopted it. SwissAtMid, the exchange’s midpoint dark book, is approaching its 10th anniversary as one of the most successful in Europe. According to third-party analysis, it now accounts for around 40% of dark trading in Swiss stocks.
“With the mix of liquidity coming in from the local community, it has really hit a chord,” says Cranston.
Part of SIX’s strength lies in the breadth of its membership. The exchange has one of the larger member lists in the industry, including many smaller firms that bring differentiated liquidity. In 2025, it focused on keeping those firms engaged and adding value for them across asset classes.
That approach now runs across the wider SIX group. In Spain, BME’s retail order book quoted at or better than the European best bid and offer more than 99% of the time for IBEX 35 stocks, with more than €10,000 available at that price more than 98% of the time. It also offered price improvement more than 20% of the time. ETF trading in Spain rose 30% during the review period.
The next phase is about making SIX’s markets cheaper and simpler to reach. Under the Equinox programme, SIX plans to bring its Swiss, Spanish and newly acquired Aquis venues onto a single trading technology. It is also building network connectivity so that a firm with a single connection in London or Frankfurt can trade across both Switzerland and Spain.
“Using the same underlying technology and harmonized connectivity will reduce operational complexity for trading participants and allow us to roll out new functionalities and innovative services across all our markets,” says Cranston.
SIX Swiss Exchange wins Euromoney’s award because it earned its 2025 records client by client. It made ETFs easier to list and trade, extended its trading hours for retail investors and kept its smaller members engaged, with better tools at the auction and in the dark. Now it is turning that service ethos into a pan-European proposition.
