Eurex and GMEX proudly report the launche of GMEX’s Euro-denominated IRS Constant Maturity Future (IRS CMF), saying that the first trades to take place since it became available on August 7 have been successfully executed, cleared and settled.
At launch, a number of trading and clearing members were able to trade and clear including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Société Générale and RJ O’Brien. GMEX and Eurex say they continue to admit and connect further market participants to trade the IRS CMF contracts, including large sell-side banks, buy-side firms, futures trading houses and derivatives brokers. Additionally, key software and market data vendors have been offering their services from the start including Trading Technologies, Fidessa and Bloomberg.
The IRS CMF contract is said to provide a much lower margin alternative to plain vanilla OTC IRS for hedging given the increased capital requirements relating to EU Commission’s mandatory central clearing and front loading rules for IRS (interest rate swaps). When the new regulation comes into force (expected to be in April 2016) buy-side firms will have six months to comply.
Said Hirander Misra, GMEX Group CEO and co-founder: “Launching an innovative product is very much a process, not an event, with a range of buy- and sell-side participants looking to go live over the coming months driven by the need for capital efficiencies as a result of regulatory change.”
Added Brendan Bradley, member of the Eurex Executive Board: “Now we need to maintain the momentum with GMEX and market participants to build the liquidity that holders of interest rate exposure will need to address the requirements of the new regulatory environment.”
