Deutsche Börse will launch a new version of its fully electronic trading system Xetra® at the end of November. This 9.1 release will enable fully electronic Europe-wide fund trading as of December 2008. More than 260 banks and brokerage firms  – around 100 of which are from European countries other than Germany – will have direct access to more than 3,300 actively managed mutual funds. Trading participants and investors benefit equally from the highest efficiency and the lowest trading costs.

With the launch of fund trading on Xetra, Deutsche Börse is systematically implementing its European growth strategy. „A new era of exchange fund trading will start with Xetra 9.1. Investors can thus engage in investment fund trading across Europe and benefit from the quickest order execution at the best prices,” said Rainer Riess, Managing Director Cash Market Development at Deutsche Börse.

The Frankfurt Stock Exchange has already offered fund trading on the floor since May 2006, and with a market share of around 42% of order book volume is Germany’s market leader. In trading fund units via the stock exchange, investors benefit from high flexibility, since in contrast to traditional fund trading via an investment company, investors can buy and sell fund units on the stock exchange within a matter of a few seconds, at any time during trading hours. Moreover, in stock exchange trading there is no front-end load as with investment companies.

About Xetra

Xetra is a fully electronic trading platform to which market participants from 20 countries are connected. More than 260 banks and brokerage firms trade in the securities listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange: Shares, ETFs, and, as of April 2008, also the structured products of Scoach, the European stock exchange for certificates and warrants. Xetra is one of the fastest and most efficient trading systems in the world. More instruments are tradable on Xetra than on any other international platform – currently more than 330,000 securities.