These contracts will offer the following key benefits to money market participants:
- Central counterparty clearing, contract standardisation and efficiently managed counterparty credit risk
- Ability to net positions traded with multiple anonymous counterparties, reducing collateral and freeing up capital
- Referenced to Eonia® (as calculated by the ECB), WMBA Sonia and EBF three month Eonia Swap Index rates, these contracts provide a cost-effective means of gaining or hedging exposure to euro and sterling overnight interest rates and to Eonia swap rates
- The one month contracts are referenced to central bank reserve maintenance periods, enhancing the hedging opportunities for short term money market traders, treasury desks and cash managers
- The three month Eonia Swap Index contract is referenced to IMM (International Money Market) dates, enhancing the spread trading opportunities available with Liffe’s flagship Euribor futures contracts
- The minimum price movement ("tick size") and contract value matches that of the Euribor® and Short Sterling futures contracts, simplifying the spread trading opportunities between the Eonia®/Euribor® and Sonia/Short Sterling futures contracts
- Provide the market with a hedging tool for unsecured lending, on-Exchange, at a time when credit exposure is under heightened scrutiny
A wide range of market participants will be able to benefit from the introduction of these contracts:
- Traders who have an underlying need for cash in the near term and to use near dated short term futures as a hedging tool, including:
- Repo and reverse repo traders
- T Bill traders
- Treasury Desks
- Short term swaps traders
- Proprietary, algorithmic and hedge fund traders who wish to utilise the opportunity to trade the spread between Eonia®/Euribor® and Sonia/Short Short Sterling futures contracts
The Quote Vendor Codes for the Eonia® and Sonia futures contracts can be viewed here. |