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On 1 January 2014, the European Energy Exchange (EEX) will introduce a new fee model for exchange membership. With this fee model, EEX will re-structure the cost of annual membership and significantly reduce the fees for becoming a trading participant on the exchange.
From January 2014, the number of membership categories will be reduced from currently eight to five categories. The “full membership” category enables the trading participants to trade all EEX products or register trades for clearing and, in the future, it will only cost EUR 15,000 per year (compared to the present annual cost of EUR 25,000). As usual, participants who only trade in natural gas or only want to register such trades for clearing will still pay EUR 7,000 annually for the “Natural Gas Only” membership. The “Environmental Markets” membership which will be offered at a fee of EUR 2,500 comprises the markets for Emission Allowances and Guarantees of Origin. Access to primary market auctions of emission allowances will remain free of charge in the context of the “Auction Only” membership. The fifth category of trading participants – “Emerging Markets” – will also be available at a fee of EUR 2,500. It will include trading and trade registration of coal products as well as trade registration of European energy contracts outside the home markets of EEX – for example the Italian and Swiss power futures which will be offered as of October 2013.
EEX will also offer all new trading participants on the exchange a “Welcome Package” from 1 January 2014. As a result, the barriers to market entry will be lowered even further: New trading participants will not pay annual fees for the first 12 months and they will receive up to three technical accesses to the trading system free of charge. Moreover, the fees for technical connections will change: In the future, fees will not be charged for a base connection to the EEX trading systems. Therefore, participation in trading on EEX will be possible free of charge in the first year of membership.
The new membership categories and the “Welcome Package” facilitate the access to exchange trading for new market actors and, among those, also smaller companies which are specialised on certain markets. “As a result, taking up exchange trading will become simpler and more cost-effective than ever before“, emphasizes Steffen Köhler, Chief Operating Officer of EEX. “We are lowering the market entry barriers for new trading participants, in particular, in developing markets, such as the markets for emission allowances or environmental products, or new regions in energy trading.” The EEX transaction fees will not be affected by the fee model.
