Battle for a benchmark
A new financial instrument in London aims to get even with Frankfurt
LONDON'S financial-futures exchange, Liffe, and the German/Swiss futures exchange, Eurex, are squaring up for yet another fight over competing futures contracts. Three years ago Eurex won the battle for the “Bund”, the ten-year German government futures contract, because it offered cheaper, more efficient electronic trading (Liffe was then still an open-outcry exchange). For seven years the two exchanges had traded rival contracts, but when it was clear that Eurex had won, trading in London suddenly dried up, and all the volume went to Frankfurt.
This article appeared in the Finance & economics section of the print edition under the headline “Battle for a benchmark”
From the June 16th 2001 edition
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