Responding to increased demand from domestic and international markets, this move will make it easier and faster for global investors to access NZX services.

David Godfrey, Head of IT at NZX, commented: "Growing interest in NZX's equity markets and dairy derivatives meant we needed to make it easier for international investors to access our services. The BT Radianz Cloud offers global reach, speed and simple access. Its focus on international expansion is aligned to our own objectives and we look forward to working closely with the members of its community."

NZX dairy futures is now one of the leading and most liquid risk management tools for globally traded dairy commodities having traded more than 40,000 lots since its launch in 2010.

Godfrey continued: "The highly-anticipated listing of the Fonterra Shareholders' Fund in November 2012 created further opportunities for exposure to dairy. In addition equity markets in New Zealand have also found renewed momentum in recent times with significant growth in trading volumes. NZX's main index (the NZX 50) rose 24 per cent in 2012 compared with the previous year. This bodes well for the launch of NZX 20 Index Futures and Equity Options later this year."

Tom Regent, president, global banking & financial markets, BT Global Services, said: "The BT Radianz Cloud supports the largest secure networked financial community in the world and brings together participants from across the financial markets' supply chain internationally. Our ongoing investments in our technology, scale and global reach of the cloud infrastructure were major factors in NZX's decision to selected BT."