Bernie Dan, president of Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT), which had completed its IPO in October (see FO Week Vol 10 No 42), said that his exchange was already seeing the effects, stating that he expected corporate governance to necessarily become more transparent in a public environment.
Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME)'s CEO, Craig Donohue, said that the task facing a public derivatives exchange was similar to that faced by any public company in that it was important to provide value to shareholders. He rejected the argument that answering to shareholders would lead to member interests being neglected, arguing that providing value would be impossible if customers became alienated.
CME, which itself had a very successful public offering in 2003, said that while the central marketplace remained derivatives exchanges' main attraction, the addition of public shareholders into the equation had drawn attention to ways in which they can expand.
Donohue's exchange...