PRESS RELEASE
June 21, 2012
NASDAQ OMX Plans to Launch NASDAQ OMX NLX, a New London
Based Interest Rate Derivatives Platform
New electronic trading platform will offer a comprehensive suite of European short-
term and long-term listed interest rate derivatives products
Platform aims to bring significant benefits to the market through improved
technology, competitive fees and exceptional margin efficiencies through trading
and clearing the full interest rate curve on a single platform
London, June 21, 2012 – NASDAQ OMX (NASDAQ: NDAQ) today announces its intention
to launch a new London-based trading venue, NLX, offering a range of both short-term
interest rate (STIRs) and long-term interest rate (LTIRs) euro- and sterling-based listed
derivative products. NLX aims to enhance the competitive landscape by providing highly
competitive execution and clearing fees and significant margin efficiencies. The platform
will be launched by Q1 2013, pending Financial Services Authority approval.
NLX is partnering with LCH.Clearnet, which will provide clearing and settlement services. All
instruments will be cleared through Synapse, LCH.Clearnet’s strategic derivatives clearing
platform. Listed products across the yield curve will be cross-margined within a single
clearing risk pool using PAIRS, LCH.Clearnet’s proprietary VaR based margining
methodology, subject to regulatory approval. This will result in optimized margin
calculations for customers.
Charlotte Crosswell, Chief Executive Officer of NLX, said; “The new market will be a single
platform for both short-term interest rate and long-term interest rate euro- and sterling-
based listed derivative products. This new trading venue will be very exciting as it will have
the potential to realise significant cost savings for customers. The combination of strong
technology, risk management and the market presence of NASDAQ OMX and LCH.Clearnet
has allowed us to build a very competitive offering and we have a system ready for
customer testing.”
Crosswell added, “This puts us in a prime position to capitalise on market structure changes
in this space, partly driven by Dodd-Frank, EMIR, MIFID II and Basel III.”
NLX will enable simplified execution of a broad range of hedge, strategy and contingent
trades and will support registration of both central order book and off order book trades on
the same platform. An innovative approach to daily and final settlement price
determination, where necessary, will link settlement prices to the wider OTC markets, thus
providing more accurate and timely settlement price publication.
NASDAQ OMX has a longstanding track record of enhancing efficiency in capital markets,
based on leading technology and an innovative culture. NLX has been built on NASDAQ
OMX’s proven Genium INET platform, with ultra low latency processing and rich trading
functionality. NLX will offer flexible connectivity, including FIX for ease of connectivity, as
well as the ITCH protocol for low latency market data. The integrated technology solution is
already in testing.
Eric Noll, Executive Vice President of Transaction Services U.S. and U.K. at NASDAQ OMX,
said; “We have chosen to partner with LCH.Clearnet because they have the risk
management expertise, an existing strong presence in Europe and proven clearing
capabilities and technology in these products.”
Alberto Pravettoni, Managing Director, Repo and Exchanges at LCH.Clearnet said; “This
partnership with NASDAQ OMX is a further endorsement of the open and horizontal model
and a testament to LCH.Clearnet’s strategic direction. We are delighted to be working with
NLX to provide world-class risk and collateral management solutions that address the
market demand.”
Will Rhode, a Principal and Director of Fixed Income Research at TABB Group, said; “The
buy-side are looking for solutions that can help alleviate the collateral burden resulting from
financial market reform and they will welcome this initiative by NASDAQ OMX. European
regulators will likely be pleased to see a horizontal clearing structure come to market where
trade flow from NLX, other exchanges and platforms and the OTC market will be able to co-
mingle within a single clearing house.”
Rhode added, “This will be a significant trading and clearing alternative to the incumbent
solutions that currently dominate the marketplace.”
Charlotte Crosswell said, “NLX has had very positive feedback from market participants on
the proposition and has formed customer steering groups. The system is already in testing
with LCH.Clearnet and we have already engaged with ISVs, post trade vendors and market
data vendors to support the NLX platform. Agreements with UK-based data centers and
network infrastructure providers are in place.”
The launch of NLX is subject to regulatory approval by the UK Financial Services Authority.
NASDAQ OMX NLX Limited is in the process of seeking permission to operate a multilateral
trading facility for this purpose.
For more information on NLX, please visit:
www.nasdaqomx.com/nlx
About NASDAQ OMX:
The inventor of the electronic exchange, The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc., fuels economies
and provides transformative technologies for the entire lifecycle of a trade - from risk
management to trade to surveillance to clearing. In the U.S. and Europe, we own and
operate 24 markets, 3 clearinghouses and 5 central securities depositories supporting
equities, options, fixed income, derivatives, commodities, futures and structured products.
Able to process more than 1 million messages per second at sub-40 microsecond speeds
with 99.999% uptime, our technology drives more than 70 marketplaces in 50 developed
and emerging countries into the future, powering 1 in 10 of the world’s securities
transactions. Our award-winning data products and worldwide indexes are the benchmarks
in the financial industry. Home to approximately 3,400 listed companies worth $6.2 trillion
in market cap whose innovations shape our world, we give the ideas of tomorrow access to
capital today. Welcome to where the world takes a big leap forward, daily. Welcome to the
NASDAQ OMX Century. To learn more, visit
www.nasdaqomx.com. Follow us on Facebook
(http://www.facebook.com/NASDAQ) and Twitter
(http://www.twitter.com/nasdaqomx).
(Symbol: NDAQ and member of S&P 500)
Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
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The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.
The matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that are made under the
Safe Harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These
statements include, but are not limited to, statements about NLX and NASDAQ OMX's other
products and offerings. We caution that these statements are not guarantees of future
performance. Actual results may differ materially from those expressed or implied in the
forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve a number of risks,
uncertainties or other factors beyond NASDAQ OMX's control. These factors include, but are
not limited to factors detailed in NASDAQ OMX's annual report on Form 10-K, and periodic
reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation
to release any revisions to any forward-looking statements.
NASDAQ OMX NLX Limited (NLX) has applied for approval from the Financial Services
Authority for authorisation as an operator of a Multilateral Trading Facility but is not
currently authorised. There can be no assurance that the FSA will give NLX the
authorisation and permissions which it seeks.
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NASDAQ OMX Media contacts:
North America:
Robert Madden
+1 646 441 5045 (office)
+1 347 740 0191 (office)
xxxxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Joseph Christinat
+1 646 441 5121 (office)
+1 646 284 5920 (mobile)
xxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
Europe:
Carl Norell
+46 (8) 405 6639 (office)
+46 (734) 496 639 (mobile)
xxxx.xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xxx
Martin Hedensiö
+46 (8) 405 62 54 (office)
+46 (73) 449 62 54 (mobile)
Martin.Hedensiö@NASDAQOMX.com
NDAQG
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The NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc.