Deutsche Börse's electronic bond trading platform Xetra has had to halt operations after two participants, whose applications for a trading mandate were turned down, obtained a preliminary court injunction from the Frankfurt Regional Court. Deutsche Börse said in a statement "the approximately 250 trading participants from across Europe that are connected to Xetra will no longer be able trade the around 700 top-performing bonds on Deutsche Börse's fully electronic platform. Attempts to reach an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiffs have been unsuccessful. Bond trading on the floor is not affected."

In the autumn, Deutsche Börse launched the specialist model for trading of around 700 bonds on Xetra in order to gain experience in fully electronic trading with these securities. Nine trading participants, including the two plaintiffs, applied for the specialist mandate. Three mandates were granted. The aim of the selection process, which was made on the basis of set criteria, was to offer investors high price quality, low costs and a high probability of executing their orders.

The trading participants, whose applications for a specialist bond trading mandate were unsuccessful, obtained the injunction, issued without a hearing for Deutsche Börse, which prohibits Deutsche Börse from putting the two plaintiffs at a disadvantage by limiting fully electronic bond trading to three specialists.

Deutsche Börse has lodged an appeal against the preliminary injunction. It says that it considers the action taken by the two plaintiffs an attempt to assert their own interests at the expense of the competitiveness of Deutsche Börse and its participants. A court hearing is expected to take place on 21^st January 2010.