Eurex Bonds rounds out the segment for European government bonds, thereby meeting the increasing demand on the market for these securities. As of 1 August, 14 Italian government bonds have also been available for trading. The segment for European government bonds was launched in June 2005 with Austrian and Dutch government bonds, and was successfully expanded on 3 July of this year by 35 government bonds from Belgium, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Portugal, and Spain. In July 2006 alone, revenue in the segment for European government bonds totaled €140 million.
A further international trading member firm, SEB AG, was admitted to trading on Eurex Bonds in July, bringing the number of Eurex Bonds participants to 33, including the German Finance Agency (Deutsche Finanzagentur) and Deutsche Bundesbank. Monthly trading volume on Eurex Bonds is currently at an average of €12.6 billion; in July the figure was €14.9 billion.
The Eurex Bonds electronic trading platform (www.eurexbonds.com) is operated by Eurex in cooperation with leading international trading firms. Eurex Bonds facilitates trading with European government bonds, fixed-income bonds from KfW Banking Group, the European Investment Bank, individual German federal states, and jumbo Pfandbriefe. Eurex Clearing is responsible for clearing. In addition to trading in underlyings, Eurex Bonds also offers an attractive combination of bonds and futures from Eurex trading. Eurex Bonds and Eurex Repo round out Eurex’s fixed-income product segment.
