Eurex turnover generated by U.S. and UK based Eurex customers has reached 565 million contracts or 57 percent of worldwide turnover, up from approximately 22 percent in 1998, the year DTB and SOFFEX merged to form Eurex, the first cross-border exchange.
"Our customers and business partners internationally have helped us in building the most liquid marketplace in the world," said Rudolf Ferscha, CEO of Eurex. "Eurex features the deepest order books and the tightest spreads worldwide. We owe this to the continued support of our customers. Through the Global Clearing Link with The Clearing Corporation in Chicago, we will jointly create even more value for our customers and further stimulate growth throughout the derivatives industry."
With the launch of Eurex US, The Clearing Corporation (CCorp) will provide clearing services for USD- denominated products. The Global Clearing Link will provide customers worldwide with additional opportunities: participants will be able to carry at CCorp Euro-denominated products executed on Eurex and Eurex Clearing customers will be able to carry at Eurex Clearing USD-denominated products executed on Eurex US. For the first time customers will be able to leverage their existing infrastructures to access both U.S. Dollar- and Euro- denominated products through the global clearing partnership. Customers will benefit from collateral pooling and margin offsets that will lead to potential margin savings in excess of 2.5 billion USD. These savings will result from the combined effect of an improved margining system and margin offsets.
Based on the successful Eurex growth model, Eurex aims to create new opportunities for growth in the industry with the launch of its Chicago-based exchange, Eurex US. Eurex US will create new opportunities in trading and clearing for Eurex customers worldwide and accelerate growth in the entire industry. "The level of support for Eurex US and the Global Clearing Link we have received from market participants and industry associations around the world highlights that the time is right for a truly global liquidity network," said Ferscha.
About Eurex:
Eurex (www.eurexchange.com) is the world's leading
futures and options market for derivative instruments
and the highest volume derivatives clearing
organization in the world. Total clearing volume on
Eurex exceeded 801 million contracts in 2002. It
provides access to a broad range of international
benchmark products: Eurex operates the world's most
liquid fixed income markets, with 450 million
contracts traded in the 2, 5 and 10 year Euro interest
rates. At the same time, Eurex is the leading exchange
in European index products with a market share of over
70 percent. Furthermore, in the equity options
business Eurex traded contracts with an underlying
value of 583 billion euros in 2002, making it the
largest equity options market worldwide.