Eurex US announced its long-expected package of measures intended to attract volume to the struggling exchange last week, and fixed 12 July as the date for what many consider to be its relaunch. However, market participants remained sceptical about the exchange's prospects.
The three-pronged package included the already announced European market maker programme, the widely anticipated waiving of US Treasury trading fees until the end of 2004, and a programme under which traders active in the market this year will share in 2005 and 2006 revenues (see box for details).
Eurex US ceo Satish Nandapurkar acknowledged that the exchange's developments thus far had not combined to form a winning package. He told FO Week, "Things have happened incrementally up to now and we needed those incremental things all to come together in a synchronised way. That's why we're starting all our programmes on 12 July, that date? marks our ability...