CME to cut its trading costs
CME GROUP yesterday said it would slash costs for some futures traders, in a bid to attract clients before rival NYSE Euronext unveils a similar move.
CME, led by Craig Donohue, said it will offer margin discounts to traders of Treasury securities and Treasury futures under a new clearing membership class, set to begin by the end of the current quarter.
“It would seem that CME has added another feature to its market that will make it even more difficult for a competing fixed-income derivatives clearing house to crack into CME’s safe,” BMO Capital Markets analyst Michael Vinciquerra told investors in a note yesterday.
“It’s likely that the new programme will be very attractive to a meaningful portion of CME’s customer base.”
Meanwhile, NYSE Euronext hopes to launch NYSE Liffe US, a rate futures market, this month alongside its partly owned New York Portfolio Clearing clearinghouse for the products. NYSE earlier this month agreed to a takeover by Germany’s Deutsche Boerse, a combination that would dominate European futures trading and squarely take on CME on the world stage.