NYSE LIFFE CHOOSES OCC AS CLEARING HOUSE

Posted October 15, 2008

NEW YORK – NYSE Liffe LLC, the US futures exchange unit of NYSE Euronext, has chosen the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC) as its clearing house, and plans to clear trades through the OCC by the end of the first quarter of 2009. NYSE Liffe customers will need minimal conversions.

“In these volatile times, it was essential for NYSE Liffe to find a strong, established clearing solution to offer unquestionable reliability for our members,” says Thomas F. Callahan, Executive Vice President and Head of US Futures at NYSE Euronext. “As the world’s number one derivatives clearinghouse by volume, OCC is the natural partner for NYSE Liffe. OCC offers the flexibility, dependability and experience needed to help us build an innovative and competitive US futures platform. OCC and NYSE Euronext have had a long and successful partnership, and expanding that relationship to include NYSE Liffe puts us in the strongest possible competitive position.”

The OCC manages that risk through a three-tiered system of stringent membership standards, appropriate and adequate margin levels and a clearing fund of $4.4 billion.

“This decision by NYSE Euronext is a credit to OCC’s futures clearing capability, experienced staff, efficient production processing and state-of-the-art technology, and to our proven risk management,” says Michael E. Cahill, President and Chief Operating Officer of the OCC. “NYSE Liffe represents an important expansion to the suite of products comprising OCC’s futures clearing business.”