The election was unanimously approved by the FESE General Assembly. The term of office is three years.

The election of Christian Katz (45) marks the first time that the presidency of the Federation of European Securities Exchanges (FESE) has been filled by a Swiss national. FESE represents 41 regulated exchanges in 30 European countries. The objectives of FESE's activities are to foster the global competitiveness of European exchanges and to reinforce the key importance of the exchanges for the European and global economy, including in times of regulatory change. The Swiss stock exchange has been represented on the Board of FESE since 2007.

According to Christian Katz, CEO SIX Swiss Exchange: «The European capital markets face big challenges. If we, as stock exchange and infrastructure providers, are to strengthen them further in an environment of rapidly increasing regulatory requirements, the structures must be changed carefully and prudently. We want to tackle this in close collaboration with the regulators and representatives of the financial sector. I look forward to this task and would like to thank FESE for the confidence they have shown in me by appointing me to the presidency.»

Christian Katz believes that it is important for all the participants to focus jointly on creating a market structure oriented towards efficiency, safety and competitiveness - in the service of companies, governments, investors and exchange participants. He says that exchanges have a decisive role to play in safeguarding jobs and economic growth, especially given the banks' reluctance to provide corporate finance, partly for regulatory reasons.

Urs Rüegsegger, Group CEO SIX, adds: «I warmly congratulate Christian Katz on his appointment. It reflects not only his outstanding record as CEO of our exchange, but also the significance of SIX as a globally active company with international networks.»