ICE Licenses Markit CDS Indices to Develop CDS Index Futures

ATLANTA, Oct. 16, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. (NYSE: ICE), a leading operator of global markets and clearing houses, today announced  it has licensed Markit's North American and European corporate credit default swap (CDS) indices, in order to develop futures and options contracts based on the Markit CDX and Markit iTraxx index families. 

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ICE operates the two leading CDS clearing houses as well as Creditex, a leading CDS trade execution business. To date, ICE has cleared more than $34 trillion in cumulative gross notional value across 340 CDS instruments through its North American and European clearing houses.

The development of futures referencing CDS indices will create new exchange-traded products to manage corporate credit risk that complements existing CDS markets and provides additional tools to manage risk exposure.

David Goone, Senior Vice President and Chief Strategic Officer, said:  "The expansion of the CDS market to futures provides credit market participants with additional tools for managing credit risk exposure. These new products in this asset class follow our successful introduction of clearing in 2009 and we're pleased to work with Markit on this important initiative."

Armins Rusis, Managing Director and Co-Head of Information at Markit, said: "The listing of the Markit CDX and Markit iTraxx Futures is an exciting opportunity for our franchise as a global provider of fixed income indices.  With the growing importance of credit as a broad-based asset class and the changing regulatory environment, it is not surprising that an innovative exchange, like ICE, has committed to developing and listing credit index futures.  This highlights our focus on helping provide cutting-edge solutions to the marketplace."

ICE expects to launch the futures contracts in the first quarter of 2013. Additional details on trading and clearing CDS futures will be provided as they are finalized. The terms of this transaction were not disclosed.

About IntercontinentalExchange   
IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) is a leading operator of regulated futures exchanges and over-the-counter markets for agricultural, credit, currency, emissions, energy and equity index contracts. ICE Futures Europe hosts trade in half of the world's crude and refined oil futures. ICE Futures U.S. and ICE Futures Canada list agricultural, currencies and Russell Index markets. ICE is also a leading operator of central clearing services for the futures and over-the-counter markets, with five regulated clearing houses across North America and Europe. ICE serves customers in more than 70 countries. www.theice.com 

The following are trademarks of IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies: IntercontinentalExchange, ICE, ICE and block design, ICE Futures Europe, ICE Clear Europe, ICE Clear Canada, ICE Clear US, ICE Futures U.S., and ICE OTC. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. For more information regarding registered trademarks owned by IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and/or its affiliated companies, see https://www.theice.com/terms.jhtml

Safe Harbor Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 - Statements in this press release regarding IntercontinentalExchange's business that are not historical facts are "forward-looking statements" that involve risks and uncertainties. For a discussion of additional risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements, see ICE's Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filings, including, but not limited to, the risk factors in ICE's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2011, as filed with the SEC on February 8, 2012, and ICE's Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2012, as filed with the SEC on August 1, 2012.

ICE-CDS

SOURCE IntercontinentalExchange, Inc.