Eurexis now offering futures on the Dow Jones STOXX 600 SM Banks and Dow Jones Euro STOXX SM Banks indices in the United States. The U.S. regulatory agency Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) issued the appropriate “no-action letter” to Eurex on April 2. This means that all U.S. participants of Eurex can now trade these contracts directly from the United States, giving them access to European equity index derivatives traded on Eurex. Eurex currently has 59 U.S. participants.
Eurex claims dominance of trading in European STOXX equity indices derivatives, with a a market share of almost 100 percent. During the first quarter of 2002, Eurex turned over some 20 million STOXX contracts, more than twice the number traded during the first quarter of 2001. Eurex has already traded some 630,000 contracts in futures and options on the STOXX sector indices during the first quarter of 2002. The U.S. share of the trading in these index products amounts to some 25 percent in the meantime.
Eurex CEO Rudolf Ferscha said: “We welcome the CFTC’s decision to allow our sector-index products for the U.S. market. The U.S. market is a central component of our international sales strategy and an important growth market for Eurex.” The “no-action letter” for the sector-index products shows the CFTC’s openness, Eurex said in a statement on the decision. In particular, the Commissioners, the Divisions involved and the new General Counsel of the CFTC had granted the request for “no-action relief” with a quick and favorable decision in spite of the changes in the legal situation of the United States since the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000 was enacted.
As a result of this decision by the U.S. regulatory agency, Eurex can expand its line of products for its American participants. At the same time, Eurex said, the liquidity in these products continues to rise, which underscores the benchmark status of the Eurex products in the European index products. The line of Eurex products tradable in the U.S now comprises the One- and Three-Month Euribor Future as well as the options on the Three-Month Euribor Future, the interest-rate derivatives Euro-Schatz, Euro-Bobl and Euro-Bund Future and the options on these futures. In the equity indices segment, futures on the STOXX 50 and Euro STOXX 50 indices as well as the futures on the sector indices Dow Jones STOXX 600 SM Banks and Dow Jones Euro STOXX SM Banks are also tradable in the U.S., in addition to the DAX future. Eurex also indicated that further index products will be added to the existing line of products for offer and sale in the U.S.. In the Eurex benchmark futures on the DAX and Euro STOXX 50, as well as on the capital market products Bund, Bobl and Schatz, the world’s Number One derivatives market has already increased the U.S. share of its total turnover to some 25 percent.