Liffe, the European based derivatives business of NYSE Euronext (NYX), announced the launch of futures on thirteen MSCI indices on its pioneering wholesale derivatives service, Bclear. The indices went live on Monday 16 February.
The thirteen MSCI indices are widely used by asset managers as well-established benchmarks of companies’ performance in a range of regions and markets around the world and together they offer global coverage. Liffe’s launch of futures on the MSCI indices is designed to make up for the lack of regional, exchange-traded index futures outside Europe today. Given the worldwide span of the contracts being listed, MSCI will offer intra-day prices to enable customers to calculate an accurate mark-to-market during their working day.
Garry Jones, executive director of Liffe said: “We are launching these contracts to meet the needs of brokers who want to trade futures on a range of MSCI indices. The indices form the basis for three of the world’s top ten most traded exchange-traded funds, so by providing customers with a flexible and secure way to hedge their ETF positions, we also hope to expand the range of our wholesale service, Bclear, further.”
Theodore Niggli, managing director of MSCI Barra, said: “We are excited to have licensed the Bclear platform for a series of futures contracts based on key MSCI Indices, as these indices are frequently used as benchmarks across the investment community.”
Robert Barnes, managing director, Equities, of UBS Investment Bank said, “Liffe’s Bclear initiative is welcome in responding to client requests for futures contracts on an increasing range of benchmark indices, and we remain keen to facilitate client business on these and other new futures contracts as part of our ongoing commitment to developing our client service offering, particularly in these changing market conditions.”
Bclear has processed over 380 million equity derivative contracts since launch in 2005. Volumes processed through the service in 2008 were 66% higher than the previous year. Bclear is the on-exchange administration and clearing service that provides a simple and cost-effective way to register and process wholesale derivatives trades through Liffe to clearing at LCH.Clearnet. This reduces the counter-party credit, legal and operational risks associated with OTC deals.
