When an industry lobby group starts a public relations campaign, the cynical observer instinctively asks: Why? Why now? Do they have an image problem? What are they worried about? Do they want changes in regulation?

These are the questions prompted by the campaign “to promote better understanding of independent market‑makers” in Europe, launched on 27 September. Firms such as Citadel Securities and Virtu Financial that use their own capital to make markets in shares and bonds have become important elements of the capital markets ecosystem over the past 20 years. The increasing electronification of markets has enabled them to grab a large chunk of the action from the banks, whose appetite for market making has been greatly reduced by the changes to their capital rules following the financial crisis.