Deutsche Börse Establishing Energy Exchange in Partnership with Eurex and Nymex

Deutsche Börse has welcomed the German energy sector's decision to establish an energy exchange in Germany. The representatives of the energy sector had come out in favour of having the German Energy Exchange initiative supported by Deutsche Börse, Eurex and NYMEX develop and set up this new exchange. "We have excellent prerequisites for the expedient realisation of an electricity futures exchange as the first step towards a European energy exchange," was Deutsche Börse's reaction to the decision. The company also said that it now wants to work with all parties that have an interest in the project, including those who have been involved in other initiatives up to now. Deutsche Börse, Eurex and NYMEX are working closely with the energy sector to set up the energy exchange. The plan calls for the energy sector to operate the new exchange. A task force with representatives of the energy sector and electricity consumers (RWE Energie, Preussen Elektra, Bayernwerk, EnBW, Enron, MVV, GEW, Degussa-Hüls and VAW Aluminium) as well as the exchanges has been working on defining the products since the beginning of March. The electricity futures exchange will be based on the electronic trading and clearing system of Eurex, the German-Swiss financial derivatives exchange. An average of about 1.4 million contracts per day are traded at Eurex, the world's largest derivatives exchange. The Eurex network connects participants from 15 European countries and the United States to computers in Frankfurt. NYMEX will bring its energy market and product know-how in particular into the co-operation. The American exchange is the world's most successful energy exchange, where energy derivatives have been traded since 1978. Since that time, NYMEX has successfully launched over 20 new products.