NYSE Liffe, the European-based derivatives business of NYSE Euronext (NYX), is now the most popular foreign exchange in Japan for trading short-term interest rate (STIR) derivatives, NYSE Liffe revealed today, citing new data for the financial year just ended, which has been published by the Financial Futures Association of Japan.
According to figures for the financial year ending March 2009, compiled by the Financial Futures Association of Japan, a total of over 20 million STIR derivatives contracts were traded by Japanese firms on NYSE Liffe, more than on any other foreign exchange, and an increase of 56% on the previous fiscal year.
Despite challenging economic conditions and falling interest rates worldwide, NYSE Liffe’s STIR futures and options contracts have outperformed their peers and their sustained liquidity continues to attract significant interest from customers in Japan and around the world.
Garry Jones, group executive vice-president and head of Global Derivatives said: “We thank our Japanese members and end-customers for their business despite the difficult market conditions over the last year. We hired Izumi Kazuhara as our Chief Representative for NYSE Liffe in Japan in April 2008, where he works within our existing NYSE Euronext office. We did this so that we could work more closely with customers to understand and meet their needs. These latest figures from the Financial Futures Association of Japan suggest this strategy is paying dividends, both in Japan and in the wider Asia-Pacific region.”
