Futures Blog

The 1970s saw the development of the financial futures contracts, which allowed trading in the future value of interest rates. These (in particular the 90-day Eurodollar contract introduced in 1981) had an enormous impact on the development of the interest rate swap market.

Today, the futures markets have far outgrown their agricultural origins. With the addition of the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) the trading and hedging of financial products using futures dwarfs the traditional commodity markets, and plays a major role in the global financial system, trading over 1.5 trillion U.S. dollars per day in 2005.

The recent history of these exchanges (Aug 2006) finds the Chicago Mercantile Exchange trading more than 70% of its Futures contracts on its “Globex” trading platform and this trend is rising daily. It counts for over 45.5 Billion dollars of nominal trade (over 1 million contracts) every single day in “electronic trading” as opposed to open outcry trading of Futures, Options and Derivatives.

In June 2001, ICE (IntercontinentalExchange) acquired the International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), now ICE Futures, which operated Europe’s leading open-outcry energy futures exchange. Since 2003, ICE has partnered with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) to host its electronic marketplace. In April 2005, the entire ICE portfolio of energy futures became fully electronic.

In 2006, the New York Stock Exchange teamed up with the Amsterdam-Brussels-Lisbon-Paris Exchanges “Euronext” electronic exchange to form the first trans-continental Futures and Options Exchange. These two developments as well as the sharp growth of internet Futures trading platforms developed by a number of trading companies clearly points to a race to total internet trading of Futures and Options in the coming years.

In terms of trading volume, the National Stock Exchange of India in Mumbai is the largest stock futures trading exchange in the world, followed by JSE Limited in Sandton, Gauteng, South Africa.

The FSA is accountable to Treasury Ministers, and through them to Parliament. It is operationally independent of Government and is funded entirely by the firms it regulates through fines, fees and compulsory levies. Its Board consists of a Chairman, a Chief Executive Officer, a Chief Operating Officer, two Managing Directors, and 9 non-executive directors (including a lead non-executive member, the Deputy Chairman) selected by, and subject to removal by, HM Treasury. Among these, the Deputy Governor for Financial Stability of the Bank of England is an ‘ex officio’ Board member. This Board decides on overall policy with day-to-day decisions and management of the staff being the responsibility of the Executive. This is divided into three sections each headed by a Managing director and having responsibility for one of the following sectors: retail markets, wholesale and institutional markets, and regulatory services.

Its regulatory decisions can be appealed to the Financial Services and Markets Tribunal.

HM Treasury decides upon the scope of activities that should be regulated, but it is for the FSA to decide what shape the regulatory regime should take in relation to any particular activities.

The FSA is also provided with advice on the interests and concerns of consumers by the Financial Services Consumer Panel. This panel describes itself as “An Independent Voice for Consumers of Financial Services”. Members of the panel are appointed and can be dismissed by the FSA and emails to them are directed to FSA staff. The Financial Services Consumer Panel will not address individual consumer complaints.