The three largest futures exchanges -- the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the New York Mercantile Exchange -- issued a joint statement approving the Commodities Futures Trading Commission's proposed rule changes in the listing of new futures contracts.
The proposed change in the approval process would require exchanges to file contract terms and conditions with the CFTC by close of business on the day prior to first listing the new contract. Contracts could expire up to one year from the month listed. The exchange would then have 45 days in which to file an application with the CFTC for trading the contract.
"By accepting that exchanges should have the ability to list contracts for trading without the delay of a lengthy regulatory approval process, the CFTC has taken a key first step to respond to the U.S. exchanges' appeal for regulatory relief," officials of the three exchanges said.
LIFFE gets nod from CFTC on terminals
LONDON -- The London International Financial Futures and Options Exchange received from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission a no-action letter that will allow LIFFE to place electronic terminals in the United States, giving U.S. investors direct access to its new electronic trading system, LIFFE CONNECT.
The London exchange already had installed the network in anticipation of the decision, according to Hugh Freedberg, chief executive.
The exchange is able to grant access to the system from countries within the European Union, Switzerland and the United States. LIFFE also has applied for permission to make it available in Hong Kong and Japan.
Chicago Merc, MEFF sign trading accord
CHICAGO -- The Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the MEFF, the Spanish Financial Derivatives Exchange, signed an agreement for the joint trading and clearing of futures and options on the Standard & Poor's Euro and Euro plus indexes.
The agreement will concentrate the liquidity for these products in a single central order book, allowing members of both exchanges to trade the European indexes in Europe.
CME members will have the same direct access to the MEFF electronic trading book for these products as MEFF members. MEFF will become a special clearing member of the CME and will clear transactions in index products through the CME Clearing House on behalf of members and customers.
In addition, members of France's Paris Bourse, Italy's IDEM and Portugal's BDP will be able to trade the new products through EuroGLOBEX, which gives members of any of these exchanges direct electronic access to trade a number of contracts listed at the other exchanges.
BARRA releases risk management software
BERKELEY, Calif. -- BARRA has released BARRA TotalRisk for Asset Management, a risk management application designed specifically for asset managers, pension fund managers and custody banks.
It includes a blend of BARRA's data, advanced modeling and flexible technology for managing and controlling risks. Specifically, the program provides a function for managing risk against benchmarks and fund guidelines.
