ELX Electronic Liquidity Exchange (ELX), a fully electronic futures exchange formed by leading financial institutions, and The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), the world's largest derivatives clearing organization, today announced the signing of an agreement for OCC to provide clearing and delivery services for ELX.
"We chose OCC because of its financial strength, its 35 years of clearing experience and its extensive service offering," said Neal L. Wolkoff, CEO of ELX. "Selecting the right clearinghouse is another essential step toward building a world-class futures exchange that will keep trading costs low, spur innovation and ensure the deep liquidity prized by the market."
"As a new exchange, ELX has the opportunity to engage best-of-breed service providers at every stage of development to meet the demands of the high-volume, computer driven strategies of today's market participants," continued Wolkoff. "The OCC offers the right capabilities to support ELX's planned launch of electronic trading in U.S. interest rate futures, plus the ability to accommodate our growth plans."
"We are very pleased to have been selected as the clearinghouse for ELX," said Wayne P. Luthringshausen, OCC Chairman and CEO. "OCC welcomes the opportunity to assist ELX with its mission to bring enhanced liquidity and reliability to the global futures market. OCC has a long history of providing a solid foundation for exchange competition that benefits the marketplace, a tradition that continues with ELX."
The agreement calls for OCC to provide ELX with all its clearing and delivery services, starting with U.S. interest rate futures.