CFTC Staff Allows Eurex Deutschland’s Futures Contract Based On The MDAX® Index To Be Offered And Sold In The United States

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's (CFTC's) Office of General Counsel issued a no-action letter on March 14, 2006, permitting the offer and sale in the United States of Eurex Deutschland’s (Eurex’s) futures contract based on the MDAX® Index (MDAX®).

The MDAX® is a broad-based, modified-free-float-market-capitalization-weighted, total-return security index maintained by Deutsche Börse AG. The MDAX® generally consists of 50 “mid-cap” stocks of German and non-German companies that are listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange’s (FSE’s) Prime Standard market segment and continuously traded on the FSE’s Xetra® trading system. The component stocks of the MDAX® rank in terms of market capitalization and turnover below the 30 stocks in the German “blue chip” security index, the Deutsche Aktienindex (DAX®). Based on data supplied by Eurex, the total adjusted market capitalization of the MDAX® was approximately US$84 billion as of June 30, 2005.

• For information on foreign exchange-traded security index futures contracts pending no-action approval with the CFTC's OGC, see the Foreign Instrument Approvals & Exemptions Backgrounder at www.cftc.gov/opa/backgrounder/opapart30.htm.