European capital markets are playing catch-up with the US after a slew of regulation has weakened competition amongst exchanges, according to Cboe’s European president.

“We’ve had a bit of a lost decade, during which the focus was not on optimising the experience for investors and issuers,” Natan Tiefenbrun, president of Cboe Europe, told Financial News. “The market infrastructure players have managed to drive regulation in the way that optimised outcomes for them.”