As exclusively revealed in FO Week (see Vol 11 No 9), Euronext Liffe last week confirmed plans to offer futures contracts on bond indices, developed in conjunction with bond index provider EuroMTS, in a move that many believed could spark competition with Eurex's benchmark Bund contract.
The new contracts have been scheduled for launch on 13 November, and were to be independent total-return indices measuring the performance of a range of Eurozone government and non-government bonds, based on real-time tradeable prices from the EuroMTS system.
"What people have been looking for since the European monetary union began in 1999 is a way of being able to trade pan-European debt for overall exposure. The normal 'cheapest to deliver futures' contract can never do that," Amanda Sudworth, head of interest rate product development for Euronext Liffe, told FO Week.
She said she believed customers would be interested in that exposure and in...