Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) CEO Jeff Sprecher has rebuffed Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) barbs regarding its offer for Chicago Board of Trade (CBoT), arguing that ICE will soon roll out new top-speed trading platform upgrades and clearing capacity to handle CBoT volume.
Sprecher, in a conference call with Wall Street analysts on 26 March, said ICE plans to launch an upgrade to its trading platform in the second quarter that "will significantly outperform all other major derivatives platforms by the end of this year and reduce round-trip times to the single digits of milliseconds".
Sprecher added that ICE could handle trading of CBoT's interest rate and agriculture contracts within a few months, something that some critics have said would not be possible.
Sprecher's comments come in response to a CME meeting with CBoT shareholders on 22 March during which CME executives said it has spent over $1bn upgrading the Globex platform...