.jpg)
Liffe today announced a major expansion of its Bclear wholesale service with the listing of flexible Universal Stock Futures (USFs) on an additional 112 underlyings and flexible Individual Equity Options on an additional 41 underlyings. The move brings the total number of underlyings on which futures and options contracts are available on Bclear to 970. It also means that Liffe now offers customers more single stock futures on the Dow Jones STOXX® 600 constituents than any other exchange.
Garry Jones, Executive Director of Business Development and Strategy said: “This latest expansion of Bclear builds on our recent listing of Russian, Central and Eastern European underlyings. By offering futures on the constituents of the key European benchmarks, Bclear now provides customers with broad exposure to large, mid and small-cap European stocks. No other exchange offers a wider choice of European stock futures.”
In 2007 Bclear processed a record 123 million equity derivatives contracts, up 133% on 2006. A record 75 million Universal Stock Futures contracts were traded, up 155% on 2006. This ensured that Liffe ended 2007 as Europe’s leader for single stock futures, attracting more single stock futures business than any other European exchange.
Bclear is the on-exchange administration and clearing service that provides a simple and cost-effective way to register and process wholesale equity derivatives trades through Liffe to clearing at LCH.Clearnet Ltd. This reduces the counter-party credit, legal and operational risks associated with OTC deals. Bclear enables registration of both ‘standard exchange’ and ‘flexible’ trades in futures and options on stocks listed in 22 countries, allowing customers to execute their business in one single place at a much lower cost.
