Infotech Lead America: CME Group, a diverse derivatives marketplace, is establishing a European CME Globex hub inside Equinix’s London, Slough LD4/LD5 data center campus.
The CME Globex hub, scheduled to open in May 2013, will enable alignment with the CME Group’s regional customers, while providing the company access to potential customers located inside Equinix International Business Exchange (IBX) data centers around the world.
Approximately 25 percent of CME Group’s electronic trading volume comes from outside the United States, primarily from the EMEA region.
Locating the CME Globex hub at Equinix’s LD4/LD5 campus gives CME Group a significant advantage by placing its business within close proximity to Europe’s leading trading platforms and electronic trading customers.
New market regulations across Europe are driving the movement of derivatives to trade on exchanges resulting in trade processing through central clearing houses and data being reported and housed in trade repositories.
William Knottenbelt, managing director EMEA, CME Group, said: “We continue to see growing demand from our customers based throughout Europe for our product offerings, which means that we also need to focus on building our infrastructure and technology capabilities in the region.”
Over the past few years, Equinix has built a cross-asset class business which is well-positioned to meet the demands of the evolving algorithmic trading market and its growth into additional asset classes such as FX and derivatives.
CME Group exchanges offer global benchmark products across all major asset classes, including futures and options based on interest rates, equity indexes, foreign exchange, energy, agricultural commodities, metals, weather and real estate.
Stewart Orrell, MD of Global Financial Services, Equinix, said: “In today’s evolving market, exchanges want to reach the largest trading community with the lowest infrastructure costs, using data centers already well-populated with their target customers.”
Customers interested in connecting to the CME Globex hub need to either acquire space in Equinix’s LD4/LD5 campus and cross-connect to the platform or lease a line.
