LIFFE Announces Timetable For Roll-Out Of Short-Term Interest Rate Contracts On LIFFE CONNECT™

The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange (LIFFE) has announced the timetable for the listing of its flagship short-term interest rate contracts (STIRs) on its new electronic trading platform, LIFFE CONNECT™, beginning 23 August 1999. Euroswiss futures will be the first to be listed intra-day on LIFFE CONNECT™ on 23 August, followed by Short Sterling on 6 September and Euribor/Eurolibor on 20 September 1999. These contracts will continue to be available for parallel (or "side-by-side") trading on the market floor. LIFFE's Chairman, Brian Williamson said, "Following a series of successful contract launches on LIFFE CONNECT™ - starting with Equity Options on 30 November, and followed by Gilt Futures on April 12 - we continue to list further contracts as planned and on schedule. On 10 May, all other Bond Futures, the Euroyen STIR Contracts, as well as the FTSE 100 Index and other Stock Index Contracts transferred to LIFFE CONNECT™. The system has been performing extremely well, proving itself to be reliable, robust and easy to use. From 23 August, we begin the roll-out of STIRs on the system and we, together with our customers, are confident that the platform will maintain LIFFE's position as the world's centre for trading euro money market derivatives." LIFFE CONNECT™ will offer pro rata trade matching for STIRs, as an alternative to the basic price/time matching method already offered by the system. Pro rata matching is generally more suitable for STIR trading, and allows for orders to be matched pro rata to their size rather than on the basis of their entry time. LIFFE has developed a new, sophisticated pro rata matching method to meet customer demand and maximise trading opportunities. Traders will also be able to utilise the full range of traditional strategies including implied pricing functionality for calendar spreads. LIFFE has also announced that the Financial Options release of LIFFE CONNECT™ will be made available from March 2000. This takes into account the needs of members to give priority to Year 2000 issues during the fourth quarter of 1999 and early 2000.