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Eurex US First Exchange To List 3-Year U.S. Treasury Note Derivatives - Modification Of Futures And Options On 2-Year U.S. Treasury Note

Date 10/01/2005

Eurex US, the fully-electronic U.S. futures and options exchange, today announced that it will expand its product suite of benchmark USD-denominated fixed income derivatives. On February 1, Eurex US will introduce futures on 3-year U.S. Treasury Notes and options on the futures. This makes Eurex US the only exchange worldwide to offer these products. With the introduction of the new product, Eurex US meets customer demand and further increases the attractiveness of its U.S. fixed income products, offering new trading opportunities in the short-term segment.

“We continue to be the innovator in the U.S marketplace,” said Satish Nandapurkar, CEO of Eurex US. “The introduction of the 3-year U.S. Treasury futures marks a new point on the Treasury yield curve. This product was established in response to strong client demand in the light of the regular issue policy of the U.S. Treasury Department with respect to short-term U.S. Treasury Notes. This will create new trading opportunities for the market.”

In addition, Eurex US will modify its 2-year US Treasury Note futures and options as of February 1. The contract value will be raised from 200,000 USD to 1 million USD. This modification brings the contract in line with the trade sizes in the underlying cash bond market increasing the attractiveness of the product. The types of deliverable short-term U.S. Treasury notes will be changed to allow for longer original maturity and wider delivery windows. A short-term note must have an original maturity not greater than 3 years and 3 months to be deliverable against the modified 2-year contract. The delivery window will be widened to 1 year and 6 months through 2 years and 3 months.

Eurex US opened its market for trading on February 8, 2004 and currently lists futures and options on 2-, 5-and 10-year U.S. Treasury notes and on 30-year U.S. Treasury bonds. Pending approval of international regulatory authorities, Eurex US will expand its offering to include trading in futures and options on Euro-denominated interest rate and index products. These products will include the Bund future, one of the world’s most heavily traded futures contract, Bobl and Schatz futures, as well as products on the leading European indices DAX and DJ EURO STOXX 50.