EDX London and Oslo Børs have today successfully begun trading derivatives on TMX Group's Sola trading system.
The new platform's superior technology brings increased speed and functionality to participants trading derivatives and for the first time London Stock Exchange Group's clearing house CC&G will be providing clearing services in the UK to EDX London. Risk and central counterparty clearing will continue to be provided by LCH.Clearnet and for Oslo Børs members through Oslo Clearing, a company in the Oslo Børs VPS Group.
A range of new Nordic products has been introduced, including an improved suite of Nordic indices, a broadened choice of Finnish derivatives and Fixed Income futures. Together, EDX London and Oslo Børs are now the most comprehensive trading venues for Nordic and Russian derivatives, offering a unique combination of products not available for trading anywhere else.
The migration of EDX London onto SOLA® marks the completion of the first step in the development of the previously-announced strategic partnership in derivatives between TMX Group and London Stock Exchange Group. This strategic partnership was cemented when TMX Group took a 19.9% ownership stake in EDX London in May 2009.
"We are very pleased that the migration to our SOLA® platform was successfully completed," said Alain Miquelon, President of Montreal Exchange, TMX Group's derivatives exchange. "TMX Group is excited about the growth opportunities that lie ahead for EDX London in the months and years ahead."
Jesper von Zweigbergk, Senior Vice President Derivatives at Oslo Børs said: "We have successfully migrated the Norwegian derivatives market to a new and enhanced technology platform. This will ensure a stronger base for further development of derivatives trading in Norway and the Nordic region.
"We are pleased to announce that we have brought all of the major market players on board, and with the support of the leading banks and financial institutions of Scandinavia and Europe, we have ensured continued and and increased market efficiency. We are confident that this will further strengthen our position as the superior market leader in Norwegian derivatives trading.
"The launch of SOLA® is the first major milestone in the strategic partnership between Oslo Børs and the London Stock Exchange Group announced earlier this year."
Massimo Capuano, Head of Post Trade at London Stock Exchange Group said: "We are delighted that as part of London Stock Exchange Group, CC&G is providing a new competitive clearing service to clients for EDX London. In July this year we received a license for clearing in the UK and this is the first new service to be delivered."
Raffaele Jerusalmi, Director of Capital Markets at London Stock Exchange Group said: "EDX London's successful launch onto SOLA® means a faster, more advanced technology offering to our clients and the introduction of a diverse, new range of products with simple, competitive pricing.
The development of EDX's Scandinavian derivatives offering builds on the strength of the already highly successful Russia IOB service and demonstrates EDX's ability to adapt its offering in line with customer demand. Working together with TMX Group we plan to create a market with a bigger scale and wider range of products."
TMX Group's trading system SOLA® offers a high level of performance, capacity and increased functionality with the scalability and flexibility to enable the development of new products and considerable volume growth.
EDX London and FTSE have worked closely with market participants to develop an enhanced suite of indices from the Nordic region, these include:
• - FTSE Sweden 30
• - FTSE Denmark 20
• - FTSE Finland 25
In addition, EDX London will offer futures based on Swedish government bonds, as well as on the Swedish and Norwegian interbank rate. These will be available for trading on-book, offering a modern and transparent market place for these products for the first time.
GATElab, who already provide a service for Borsa Italiana to around 90 customers to access Italian markets, will be providing the user interface for the new system, with its front end clearing technology BCS and trading system BTS based on GATElab traderpath platform. This platform has been built in response to buy-side and sell-side needs and tailored specifically for EDX.