An increase in client adoption and trading volume puts the market in futures based on bond indexes in position to harness increased demand for credit protection, according to a Eurex executive.
Speaking to FOW ahead of the Eurex Derivatives Forum event in Frankfurt next week, the firm’s global product lead for credit derivatives said the development of liquidity has been spurred by increased use of the contracts by buy-side firms in Europe.
“One key development has been the integration of Credit Index Futures on some of the most popular portfolio and risk management analytics platforms,” Davide Masi said in an interview. “As a result, if we observe the open interest development in 2025, one can notice a sharp increase at the beginning of the third quarter, showing the extent of the pent-up demand that existed for the product, driven by buy-side clients.”
Last year saw the breaching of key milestones for the segment, first launched on the Frankfurt exchange four years ago, as credit risk becomes an important tool in managing market uncertainty. Traded notional across the complex doubled year-on-year in 2025, rising to €111 billion (£97bn) according to figures provided by the exchange (see chart 1). Open interest also breached €3 billion for the first time in the period, an increase of 80% in the period. That increase has in part been driven by the support of sell side market makers, according to Masi.
“A second important aspect is the increased participation and support from dealer banks and liquidity providers in the off-book market,” he added. “In 2025, liquidity in our products further improved thanks to the readiness of new dealers to participate in this market. This improvement had the effect of enhancing the pricing picture offered to buy-side clients in Credit Index Futures, further driving adoption.”
Eurex launched its first US dollar credit futures in September 2024, adding to the European credit futures made available in September 2021. The firm also has pound sterling and emerging market sovereign futures based on Bloomberg Index Services benchmarks.
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