Chicago Mercantile Exchange has introduced two further initiatives in its ongoing programme to meet the needs of its European customer base. In the first move, the exchange has expanded the collateral it is now accepting as margin on its futures and options, reflecting the growth of its customer base outside the US. Among the new types of collateral accepted by CME Clearing House are French sovereign debt (BTF, BTAN and OAT), German sovereign debt (Bubills, Schatze, Bobls and Bunds) and UK sovereign debt (conventional and index-linked gilts). The exchange has also established a global custody relationship with Citibank to act as custody agent for the new collateral types. Secondly, a new multi-lingual Internet Resource Center has been launched to meet the needs of CME's German, French, Spanish and Italian-speaking customers.
Meanwhile, CME launched Gold TRAKRS futures on 3 December, when 5,759,346 Gold TRAKRS contracts, representing approximately $144m, were traded. The...