IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global regulated futures exchanges, clearing houses and over-the-counter (OTC) markets, announced that, beginning today, ICE Futures Europe will publish weekly Commitments of Traders (COT) reports for its global benchmark ICE Brent Crude and ICE Gasoil futures contracts.
ICE Futures Europe, which is regulated by the UK Financial Services Authority (FSA), initiated the weekly reports to provide market transparency and leadership in the development of comprehensive reporting across regulatory jurisdictions.
COT reports were originally developed by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). The weekly CFTC COT reports provide open interest in futures and options markets by category of market participant. The CFTC already publishes a COT report with respect to the ICE WTI Contract, based on data supplied by ICE Futures Europe.
ICE Futures Europe’s COT reports for Brent incorporate the 350 lot reporting level established by the CFTC for crude oil, and the Gasoil reports incorporate the 250 lot reporting level established for middle distillates. The reports utilize the four categories of market participants used by the CFTC today: producers, swap dealers, managed money and other reportables. ICE Futures Europe’s COT reports include futures-only and futures-and-options-combined data, as well as open interest concentration among the contracts’ largest traders. The reports, including data beginning on June 7, 2011, are available here.
“ICE Futures Europe is contributing to the transparency of global listed commodity markets,” said David Peniket, president, ICE Futures Europe. “These reports are a constructive contribution in this respect, and an important step in the development of a global standard through the CPSS IOSCO framework that builds on the existing reporting foundations.”
Following today’s publication, the Exchange intends to publish the reports each week at 12:00 pm London time (7:00 am E.T.) each Monday with data for the previous Tuesday.
ICE Futures Europe has provided data to the CFTC for its U.S.-linked energy futures contracts, including WTI, since 2006. ICE’s U.S.-based DCM, ICE Futures U.S., provides data to the CFTC for COT reports for its benchmark agricultural and U.S. Dollar Index contracts. ICE’s OTC energy markets have provided data to the CFTC for its Henry Hub swaps contract since 2006 and for additional swap contracts that have been deemed Significant Price Discovery Contracts (SPDCs) since last year. Each of these reports is published in the CFTC’s weekly COT report.
