Press

The international derivatives exchange Eurex will continue to expand its international distribution network in 2008. As of 1 January 2008, an incentive program will be initiated for new traders from central and (south-)eastern European countries (CEE states), and the Global Connectivity Initiative, which was launched at the beginning of 2007, will be extended for another year.

The new incentive program for CEE states is aimed at Eurex participants that want to expand their trading activities in Eurex products to cover the following countries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Traders in these countries can trade in up to 500,000 contracts per location (a maximum of five per member) in a twelve-month period without incurring any transaction fees, provided that they are performing proprietary trading via order routing systems and are not yet admitted to trading on Eurex. Transactions executed via fully automated trading systems (algorithmic trading) are not covered by the fee exemption.

These selected markets offer considerable potential due, among other things, to their participation in the European Union, because there is a strong local demand for Eurex benchmark instruments. Eurex will also be using this initiative to support the training and further education of traders.

At the same time, Eurex will be continuing with its successful Global Connectivity Initiative in 2008. This means that all new participants admitted in 2008 will be exempted from both the minimum transaction fee and transaction fees of up to €3,000 per month for the first year. New trading participants will also be offered Eurex related training programs on a free-of-charge basis, when they commence their trading activities. The early 2007 launched Global Connectivity Initiative strongly increased Eurex’s liquidity network, more than 40 new participants were connected.