Liffe to offer three-month Eurodollar contracts

The London International Financial Futures & Options Exchange (Liffe), part of pan-European exchange Euronext, will offer three-month Eurodollar futures and options contracts starting on March 18.

The contracts will be part of Liffe’s short-term interest (Stir) contract family, which already includes Euribor. The contracts are traded on the exchange's electronic derivatives trading system, Liffe Connect.

Liffe said the initiative is being launched in response to worldwide customer demand for Euribor and Eurodollar contracts to be available simultaneously on the same exchange. This would bring the global community of interest rate traders together on to one platform and allow Stir contracts to be cleared together, it added.

“Customers have been looking forward to a time when they can trade, clear, settle and cross-margin all the major Stir contracts on the same electronic market,” said Hugh Freedberg, Liffe’s chief executive.

Liffe is also working with its US subsidiary, NQLX, to explore the possibility of the contracts becoming available through the New York exchange. But Liffe said the plans are subject to sufficient demand and the approval of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission.