IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) is opening its doors to Nymex floor traders. ICE said it received approval from the Commodity Trading Futures Commission (CFTC) to allow registered floor traders, locals and other traders with electronic trading privileges on other major regulated U.S. futures exchanges to execute over-the-counter (OTC) transactions on ICE’s electronic trading platform.

The move marks another step in the ongoing battle between ICE and Nymex, which recently filed separate legal challenges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (see Daily GPI, Jan. 7).

ICE said its application to the CFTC was prompted by inquiries from the trading community, including proprietary trading groups. Prior to this relief, many of these market participants were not eligible to trade on ICE.

“Independent traders play a key role in providing liquidity and transparency to futures markets,” said David Goone, senior vice president of ICE. “For the first time since the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act in 2000, all registered traders will have the opportunity to trade in OTC commodity markets via a digital platform.” He added that the increased participation will boost the utility of the ICE marketplace to its existing 6,000 commercial and financial customers.

“The new access standards will allow independent members of exchanges to trade the highly robust and liquid energy OTC derivative markets on Intercontinental that were formerly reserved for only large corporations,” said Scott Smith, a former Aquila natural gas trader.

TradeLink President Keith Bronstein said, “We have long enjoyed access to electronic trading at the world’s major futures exchanges. Intercontinental offers interesting new markets that we look forward to accessing.”

Transactions executed on Intercontinental’s platform may be settled on a bilateral basis or cleared through a designated clearing organization with which Intercontinental has established a clearing relationship.

Atlanta-based ICE’s core group of shareholders includes American Electric Power Co., Aquila Energy, Reliant Resources, Mirant Corp., BP, Deutsche Bank AG, Duke Energy, El Paso Corp., Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter & Co., Royal Dutch/Shell Group, Societe Generale SA, TotalFina Elf SA and Continental Power Exchange.

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