Regulators across Europe are beginning to curtail trading in Greek assets as the country’s stock market remains closed and Greeks grapple with capital controls and prepare for a default to the IMF at midnight.
Luxembourg’s market regulator has suspended trading in bonds issued by National Bank of Greece, Alphabank, Eurobank, Piraeus Bank, Eurobank, the Hellenic Railways Organisation and the Hellenic Republic.
“The request for the suspension of trading came from the Luxembourg regulator- the ESSF. A spokesperson for the Bourse said that since the Greek stock exchange was closed meaning trading was not possible in Greece, the Luxembourg regulator said trading should be suspended in Luxembourg too in the interests of European trading harmony,” FT says [6].
"There's a variety of reasons and criteria as to why we would be asked to suspend. I can't remember the last time we were asked, it would have been a while ago. The one I can remember was a request for Banco Espirito Santo when we were asked to suspend trading in shares and bonds,” an exchange official told Reuters [7].
Meanwhile , the UK’s FCA has asked Tradeweb to block Greek bond trading.
So while some regulatory bodies are indeed concerned about the idea of “trading harmony”, Global X apparently isn’t because the FTSE Greece 20 ETF is still trading despite the "holiday" in Athens, meaning any retail investors hoping to BTFD ahead of a "Nai" Greferendum outcome are effectively trading a CEF without knowing it.
