Membership Types

The Nordic Exchange offers different memberships depending on what products the prospective member wants to trade. Membership can be applicable for one or several markets within the Nordic Exchange. In other words, a member can chose a membership to trade in equity and the fixed income market and/or also trade in the derivatives market.

A member of the Cash market can trade equities, equity rights, convertible loans, subscription options, premium bonds, retail bonds, ETFs and warrants. The products can vary according to the local market. Trading local cash products previously required separate memberships on each exchange. Today NASDAQ OMX has simplified this by creating the Nordic Exchange, which requires only a single membership. Read more »

A member of the Derivatives market can trade equity derivatives, index derivatives and fixed income derivatives. Again, these products may vary due to the local market environment. Read more »

 

Membership Requirements

Membership on NASDAQ OMX Nordic, or on one of its exchanges, is mandatory if direct access to trading is required. NASDAQ OMX Nordic requires that the exchange members fulfill all membership criteria at all times. The criteria are different depending on if the member is a cash member or a derivatives member.

Cash members of NASDAQ OMX Nordic have to possess minimum equity capital of 730 000 EUR. NASDAQ OMX Nordic may choose to grant membership to an applicant that has the right to carry on investment business throughout the European Economic Area on the basis of authorisation by the competent authorities of its home Member State pursuant to the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2004/39/EC), even though the capital requirement set above is not fulfilled. NASDAQ OMX Nordic may choose to grant restricted membership, which gives a Member right to trade solely on its? own account and exclusively Instruments cleared and settled via a Central counterparty, to an applicant domiciled within the European Economic Area and that has equity capital equivalent to not less than 50,000 euro. Members shall conduct investment business in a fit and proper manner, have a stable organization and secure technical system – an important consideration given that a direct technical connection to the Exchange’s trading system is used. The exchange traders must be authorized by NASDAQ OMX Nordic and the member must have at least two traders employed. In addition to being supervised by a public authority, the member should have relevant authorizations to conduct investment services. The member should have access to clearing and settlement, either through membership to the local CSD or a custodian bank. For detailed information on the membership requirements for the cash market, please see the latest NASDAQ OMX Member Rules under Rules & Regulation

The same requirements mostly apply for a derivatives membership as for cash membership, with some variation due to the different market and trading structures. Applicants who are not regulated or under supervision by a financial supervisory authority, but with legal entity domiciled within the EEA will be subject to a stricter initial validation process and stricter on-going supervision by the Exchange. The financial criteria for derivatives members differ depending on if a member is a trading member or a clearing member. A trading member of the derivatives market has to possess minimum equity capital of 125 000 EUR, while clearing membership carries a higher requirement (starting at 10 million SEK) because of the increased counterparty risk. A clearing member shall at all times have at least two employees who fulfill the requirements applicable to Back Office Personnel. Traders trading in the derivatives market should be authorized to use the Genium INET trading system. For detailed information on the membership requirements for the derivatives market, please see Rules & Regulations 2.2 and 3.2.

Authorization

The traders and back-office personnel who are granted direct access to the trading or back-office systems of NASDAQ OMX Nordic must have attended education arranged by NASDAQ OMX Nordic. Traders who will trade on one of NASDAQ OMX´s Nordic cash markets must be authorized to trade in the trading system INET Nordic. For traders trading the derivatives market, authorization in the trading system Genium INET is a requirement. Back-office personnel should be authorized to use the back-office system Genium INET Clearing. For traders employed by a firm trading from offices located in Sweden, a SwedSec license is required.

Read more about Trader Authorization here »