Icap enters electronic futures fray

Icap, already the largest global voice and electronic broker in most major cash bond and many over-the-counter derivatives products, intends to complement and compete against the e-trading offerings of the four major futures exchanges – the Chicago Board of Trade, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME), Euronext.liffe and Eurex – said Humphrey Percy, global head of futures at Icap.

The main advantage for users, said Icap, will be the ability to trade futures against underlying cash securities on the same platform.

"We already have [futures] execution and clearing business in Wellington [New Zealand], Sydney and London, and we intend to expand into North America," Percy said.

Icap has also appointed Jim McNulty, the former president and chief executive officer of the CME who oversaw the exchange's changeover from a trader-owned to a publicly owned company, as a non-executive director.