Financials

• NYSE Liffe will list its suite of derivatives based on MSCI indices on the London Central Order Book, and will begin trading its MSCI Europe Net Total Return Index futures contract on March 1.
• Eurex Exchange will list its new derivatives on global MSCI indexes beginning March 11. The products will include futures and options based on MSCI Europe, MSCI All Countries Asia Pacific ex-Japan and MSCI World, and futures on the MSCI Frontier Markets.

• Eurex plans to launch the Mid-Term Euro-OAT Future, which will be based on notional medium-term bonds issued by France.
• HSBC and Barclays agreed to become market makers of the London Stock Exchange’s International Board, which was created through a cross-quotation agreement with Singapore Exchange that allows constituents of the STI 30 and MSCI Singapore Free Indices to be traded in London, cleared at LCH.Clearnet and settled in Singapore dollars.

Technology

• Cleartrade Exchange, the Singapore Regulated Futures Exchange, launched its Data Centre web portal, designed to consolidate market information for freight and commodity derivatives contracts.
• ASX plans to introduce its ASX Net Global low latency network that will link the Australian Liquidity Centre with data centers in North America (Equinix Chicago), Asia (SGX Singapore) and Europe (Interxion London).
• The Philippines Dealing and Exchange Corp. chose NASDAQ OMX’s SMARTSOnline market surveillance system to monitor market activity across the fixed-income market.

 Regulation

• ICE’s U.S.-based credit default swap clearing house, Clear Credit, won regulatory approval to clear the Markit iTraxx Europe CDS indexes beginning Feb. 25.
• Chi-X Canada received approval to launch a new alternative trading system (ATS), CX2, which will be introduced in phases starting on May 3. CX2 has a pricing model that rewards liquidity takers, according to the exchange.

• The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority gave CME permission to clear interest rate swaps through its London clearinghouse, which it will begin in April.

Commodities

• On Feb. 25, the European Energy Exchange will begin clearing Scandinavian power futures, Czech and Slovak power and two-euro denominated coal index futures.
• NYSE Euronext reportedly is seeking to spin off its Matif wheat futures market in Europe in order to obtain regulatory approval for its takeover by IntercontinentalExchange.

• Beginning in 2014, Nasdaq OMX plans to offer physical and financial Dutch gas contracts and European coal contracts.
• ISE and IndexIQ entered into a partnership agreement to promote new exchange-traded products focused on physical commodities.

Options

• optionsXpress Inc. has replaced its tiered commission structure for futures and options with prices of $3.50 per contract.

• TD Ameritrade introduced a new “Strategy Roller” feature to its thinkorswim trading platform. The tool is designed to allow retail traders to roll their existing option positions automatically based upon their own user-defined settings.

Forex

• AxiCorp Financial Services Pty launched its AxiTrader USA forex service. The new service is designed to give U.S. clients access to 24-hour trading through the MetaTrader4 platform.

• Guggenheim Investments launched CurrencyShares Singapore Dollar Trust, the first Singapore dollar exchange-traded product (ETP). The ETP is designed to give investors a cost-effective way to gain exposure to the Singapore dollar.