Nearly half of traders across Europe expect block trading to grow despite fears around increasing regulations, a SIX Swiss Exchange survey has found.

Sixty-five per cent of respondents said market regulations such as MiFID II and FinfraG remained the largest concern for their businesses.

Ahead of the introduction of volume caps under MiFID II, over a third of participants were undecided on whether the changes will affect the way they trade. This is while 44% said recent regulatory changes would not push them to trade in larger block sizes, and 8% said they would.

There is continued confidence in the block trading sector as 18% of respondents expected more than 50% growth in the market and 30% foresaw 0-50% growth. This is while 43% expected the market to remain stable.

At present, traders appear to be making the most of the lack of volume cap, as the survey found that 17% were trading more actively and increasing interaction with block-sized liquidity.

When asked, 52% of traders expected their companies to shrink their workforce over the next three years while 15% expected workforces to grow.