Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) pulled yet another rabbit out of the hat in its dragged out fight with Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) by shoring up its equity index complex in signing a $50m exclusive licensing deal with Russell Indexes, a move that will shutter the Chicago exchange’s liquid Russell 2000 futures contract.The deal, which runs for seven years, gives exclusive licensing to all US Russell Indexes for futures trading at ICE. ICE will also pay royalties to Russell based on volume and must maintain certain minimum volume averages after three years to keep the exclusive license, according to an ICE’s filing with Securities Exchange Commission.ICE, through its acquisition of New York Board of Trade, already had a licensing agreement with Russell and trades Russell 1000, 2000, 3000 and mini-sized contracts. But that was just one of several licenses Russell signed with...