25 Years of IPO


Twenty‑five years ago, Deutsche Börse Group took a bold and exceptional step: it listed itself on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. What followed is a success story that has been many things at once – driven and at times demanding, analytical and occasionally a bit nerdy, yet equally inspiring, forward‑looking, and iconic in its own way. A story that shows how a company can continuously evolve to deliver stability, trust, and innovation to global financial markets.

We are the engineers of the capital markets and...

Dream Makers

Pre-IPO & Listing – without us, ideas would remain ideas.


Match Makers

Trading – without us, prices would remain theoretical.


Fact Makers

Market Data & Analytics – without us, data would stay mere mass.


Confidence Makers

Clearing – without us, transactions would remain risks.


Flow Makers

Post-Trading – without us, trades would never close.


System Makers

Information Technology – without us, exchanges would go offline.


Insight Makers

Investment Management Solutions – without us, decisions would be guesswork.


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Deutsche Börse Group is far more than a publicly listed corporation. It is the heart of Frankfurt's financial center, a magnet for talent from around the world, and a driver of economic value creation in our country. Its success contributes significantly to Hesse being one of the leading financial and technology locations. I am convinced that Deutsche Börse Group will continue to set the standard for the next 25 years – through pioneering spirit, responsibility, and a clear vision for the future.
Boris Rhein, Minister President of Hesse
Photo: © Sinah Osner / Hessische Staatskanzlei 

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On the 25th anniversary of the IPO, I offer my warmest congratulations. I wish Deutsche Börse Group continued success, foresight, and the courage to keep making groundbreaking decisions. And I am confident that the close ties with Hesse will endure – so that in another 25 years, we'll celebrate the golden anniversary together.
Kaweh Mansoori, Hessian Minister for Economic Affairs, Energy, Transport, Housing and Rural Areas
Photo: © Peter Jülich / HMWVW 

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I congratulate Deutsche Börse Group on the 25th anniversary of its IPO. Over the past quarter century, it has evolved into one of Germany's most successful financial groups and one of the most important marketplaces in Europe and around the globe – one that investors and companies worldwide trust.
Lars Klingbeil, Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance
Photo: © Jesco Denzel / Bundesregierung

The ad campaign that set Deutsche Börse Group in motion – 25 years on

At its IPO, Deutsche Börse Group defined itself by eight ideas: technology, reliability, speed, scale, cleverness, liquidity, transparency, and precision. Together, they formed a clear promise: value for shareholders, benefits for customers, and opportunities for employees.

Back then, Springer & Jacoby turned these ideas into iconic images and lines. Now, illustrator Joni Marriott revisits them – here’s a look at how these principles have evolved, branched out, and continue to shape Deutsche Börse Group today.

Technology

Over 75 percent of Deutsche Börse Group's computing power already runs in the cloud. In 2020, that figure was just 18 percent.

Deutsche Börse Group uses artificial intelligence to correlate social media data with price movements in real time, identifying unusual patterns and countering potential manipulation.

More than 45,000 securities are issued every week through Deutsche Börse Group's post-trade platform D7 – entirely digital. What could take up to two days through traditional paper-based processes now happens in minutes.
 

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Reliability

Deutsche Börse Group's trading systems maintain over 99.9 percent uptime.

Deutsche Börse Group monitors data traffic across its servers at more than 500 monitoring points around the clock, ensuring security and transparency.

Clearstream safeguards securities valued at more than €20 trillion – with the security of these assets receiving the highest priority.
 

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Speed

Placing an order in the T7 trading system takes a median of roughly 15 microseconds. That's 20,000 times faster than the blink of an eye – which, at 300,000 microseconds, seems like an eternity by comparison.

The DAX is recalculated every second during trading hours. When the index launched on July 1, 1988, it was only updated every 60 seconds. Since October 2025, the calculation runs in the cloud.

Deutsche Börse Group's T7 trading system processes up to 201,000 orders per second at peak times. By comparison, Instagram sees roughly 1,100 posts per second.
 

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Scale

Over €50 trillion in assets are managed on SimCorp's software platform for investment managers. That's more than 10 times Germany's GDP.

Deutsche Börse Group has more than 16,000 employees representing over 120 nationalities across more than 60 locations worldwide.

Deutsche Börse Group's market capitalization stood at around €40 billion in December 2025. That's 10 times higher than at the IPO 25 years ago.
 

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Cleverness

More than 60 percent of Deutsche Börse Group's net revenue come from recurring income streams – strengthening resilience and stability.

Deutsche Börse Group's trading systems run in two geographically separate, secure, and fully redundant data centers. If one fails, the other takes over. This failover is tested twice a year.

The Art Collection Deutsche Börse comprises more than 2,400 works of contemporary photography by 172 artists from 40 countries, offering extraordinary insights into the world of yesterday and today.
 

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Liquidity

Exactly one gram of physical gold backs every Xetra-Gold certificate in a Clearstream vault. Investors can take physical delivery of the gold at any time.

With over €900 billion in ongoing financing operations, Deutsche Börse Group supports market liquidity through its Clearstream infrastructure.

Seventeen Designated Sponsors operate in Xetra trading to ensure sufficient liquidity in equity trading. This is especially important for thinly traded securities, keeping market liquidity high so investors can always buy or sell at fair prices.
 

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Transparency

In Xetra's open order book, all submitted buy and sell orders are visible to market participants, making price discovery transparent and trading decisions more predictable.

Deutsche Börse Group operates an anonymous whistleblower reporting system. Unethical or illegal behavior can be reported around the clock.

Deutsche Börse Group is committed to reducing its CO₂ emissions and contributing to a sustainable future. It reports regularly and transparently on its progress.
 

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Precision

Data lines to Deutsche Börse Group's trading platform are precisely standardized to guarantee equal access times for all participants within the data center. This creates a level playing field, because in high-frequency trading, every centimeter of cable affects access speed—and competitive fairness.

Deutsche Börse Group's PTP (Precision Time Protocol) network synchronizes timekeeping to the nanosecond, determining precisely: Which order came first? Who was faster? What happened when?

Each transaction generates up to six different high-precision timestamps, enabling seamless and precise tracking of every single step.
 

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25 years of growth at a glance

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Acquisitions that contributed to Deutsche Börse Group

2011– EEX®

Building secure, successful and sustainable commodity markets worldwide.

2015 – STOXX®

Expanding the index leadership.

2015 – 360T®

Broadening the asset‑class spectrum with a global FX trading platform.

2019 – Axioma®

Developing into a fully integrated, leading provider of buy-side intelligence.

2021 – Crypto Finance

Building a trusted and fully regulated digital asset ecosystem.

2021 – ISS

Strengthening the ESG, governance and sustainability analytics.

2023 – SimCorp®

Expanding into investment management software and data integration.

Innovations that moved our markets forward

Xetra® trading platform

Revolutionizing trading with unprecedented speed and transparency, creating the world’s leading venue for German shares and ETFs.

T7®, C7®, M7® and N7® infrastructure suite

Creating a harmonized, high‑performance, and reliable technology backbone for the entire trading and clearing lifecycle.

Digital post-trade platform D7®

Enabling a fully digital securities environment that accelerates issuance to same-day speed and increases post-trade efficiency.

Cloud & AI transformation

Harnessing cloud and AI to accelerate innovation, strengthen cybersecurity, and build next generation of digital asset platforms.

Leading the transformation of global financial markets