Hi all,

We’re bubbling with excitement at CurveGlobal as growing market share is deepening and broadening our markets. As you will read in this month’s newsletter, building on the price improvements we’re already delivering, following your feedback we’ll soon be launching CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures, and reducing the tick size from 1 tick to ½ a tick in the Three Month Sterling Futures contract.

Our passion for making a real difference for participants is generating tangible trading efficiencies and more competitive markets for you the market. So while traditionally futures markets have been thought of as “winner takes all,” clearing CurveGlobal futures and margining these alongside swaps at LCH allows us to challenge this paradigm and liberate Rates markets for you, the trading community. As always, our mission remains to return control of open interest to you and deliver all the benefits you get from meaningful competition. 

Last week a few of us attended the 43rd FIA International Futures industry annual conference in Boca Raton, Florida where we spoke to a number of you about CurveGlobal. I’ve never (successfully) done speed dating, but, this felt a bit like a futures version of it.  

The general mood at the conference was overwhelmingly positive, pro-business and pro-opportunities, perhaps the speed-dating equivalent of the three stars! Fortunately, as well as the usual chatter on regulation, Brexit, bitcoin, etc., we got to share the platform and talk more on LIBOR replacement – and the high expectations for our new products and functionality, such as inter-commodity spreads. You heard it here first!
 

Sincerely,
Andy Ross
aross@curveglobalmarkets.com

STOP PRESS: I've been told that I've won the charity poll we were running. That means I'm taking salsa lessons once Open Interest hits 500,000!

Full Steam Ahead

With much of the UK still shivering from the icy blast of the ‘Beast from the East’, it’s hard to believe that Easter is just around the corner. But as the days start to get longer - and, hopefully, warmer - there’s plenty to look forward to. Read on to find out what’s in store at CurveGlobal in the weeks ahead.

Jump Ball Customer Partnership Programme (3 April 2018)

We’re excited to announce the launch of the CurveGlobal Jump Ball Customer Partnership Programme on 3 April 2018, subject to regulatory approval – our way of rewarding firms who are leading the way in adopting our products.

This incentive programme will run for six consecutive quarters and is available to all members, and clients of members, and will award the following:

• Up to a total of 10% of CurveGlobal’s equity capital to eligible participants

• 9% available to the top five participants over the period

• 1% to the largest participant at the end of the scheme (specific percentages may change subject to rollover provisions from previous quarters)

Parties who wish to participate must formally opt-in by signing the CurveGlobal Jump Ball Programme Opt-In Agreement. To register your interest, please contact LSEDerivativesProduct@lseg.com.

Short sterling tick size reduction (23 April 2018)

On 23 April 2018 CurveGlobal will implement a reduction in the minimum tick increment on the Three Month Sterling future to 0.005, with a corresponding tick value of £6.25. The change is across all twenty-four expiries.

Why the change?

This finer price granularity will help you address some of the price components of MiFID II Best Execution. We’re also taking the opportunity to align the contract tick size with the launch of the CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures contract, which will facilitate the launch of the Inter‑Commodity Spread (ICS).

CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures (30 April 2018)

On 30 April 2018 we’re launching the new CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures and ICS. The SONIA[1] contract is based on the effective overnight reference rate for Sterling (SONIA – Sterling Over Night Index Average), as calculated and published by the Bank of England. This will go live one week after the Bank of England implementation of the SONIA reform. The accrual period will be the contract month’s IMM date to the day before the next IMM date.

The ICS: CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures vs. Three Month Sterling Futures

The ICS spread between the new CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures and the Three Month Sterling Futures will allow participants to trade orders implied from a combination of resting bids and offers in outright markets and/or orders resting in strategy markets. Entering an order into the spread will imply “out” an order into the relevant outright market. Additionally, an implied “in” order is two separate outright orders creating a spread price.

The migration to OIS-based contracts is a challenge for financial markets, so with the regulatory momentum behind LIBOR replacement, it’s imperative that there are tight, liquid futures available to participants to manage the OIS/LIBOR spread risk. By enabling our CurveGlobal® Three Month SONIA Futures to be cleared alongside swaps at LCH, participants will not only benefit from greater operational efficiency, but optimal use of capital through planned potential portfolio margining.

Q1 Round-up

The first quarter of 2018 has flown by. So here’s a quick reminder of how we have started the year...

CurveGlobal had an exceptionally positive start to 2018. The long-awaited go-live date for MiFID II on 3 January went very smoothly. CurveGlobal’s Three Month Sterling Futures and Three Month Euribor® Futures have continued their record-breaking momentum by both trading through 100,000 lots of Open Interest. Combined Open interest has grown by 28% this year so far.*

CurveGlobal Funding (6 February 2018)

At the start of 2018, CurveGlobal secured an additional £20 million in funding from existing Bank and Exchange shareholders. This renewed commitment further demonstrates the confidence our partners have in us and the value that CurveGlobal brings to the market.

*Up to and including week ending 17/03/2018.