EEX: Free OTC Clearing For Legacy Trades To Give Fresh Impetus To Coal Futures - Coal Trading On EEX Muted So Far

Up to now, the trade turnover achieved in coal trading, which was launched on European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) in May 2006, ranges on a low level. On the one hand, this is still a very new exchange market by means of which EEX broke new ground at an early stage in accordance with its perception of itself as a pioneer on the market and which now has to be developed actively. On the other hand, many trading participants and potential trading participants are still working on their in-ternal technological preparations for the trading activities.

In order to stimulate trading, European Energy Exchange AG (EEX) is now temporarily offering OTC clearing of historic coal futures trades to its trading participants free of charge. This step gives all trading participants the possibility of transferring existing bi-lateral positions into the clearing system of EEX free of charge up to and including 31 August 2006. This means the trading participants on EEX can now also use the bene-fits of the EEX clearing system for so-called legacy trades.

EEX operates a Spot and a Derivatives Market for power and CO2 emission allow-ances. With currently 148 trading participants from 19 countries, it is the energy ex-change in continental Europe which boasts the largest number of trading participants and the highest volume traded. The range of services provided by EEX is comple-mented by related services such as the integrated clearing of exchange based con-tracts and over-the-counter transactions (OTC clearing). On 2 May 2006 EEX was the first exchange in Europe to launch OTC clearing of coal contracts and trading of coal futures.