On 18 March 2014, the first European Energy Exchange (EEX) Exchange Council meeting of the year was held in Geneva, chaired by Peter Heydecker. At the meeting, Cleartrade Exchange (CLTX), which is a new member of EEX Group, was introduced to the Exchange Council and resolutions regarding the introductionof new products on EEX were adopted.
Richard Baker, CEO of CLTX, attended the meeting as a guest. CLTX is a derivatives exchange which was founded in Singapore in 2010 and operates a regulated electronic market platform for freight, fuel oil, iron ore and fertilisers. As Richard Baker explained at the meeting, CLTX offers its customers fully electronic settlement and trade registration on these markets. With the acquisition of the majority of the shares in CLTX, EEX Group expands its offering on a global scale and offers its trading participants the opportunity to enter new, energy-related asset classes. Managing Director Exchange Peter Reitz explained that, as a first step, CLTX is to be connected to European Commodity Clearing (ECC) to enable the exchange’s customers to have their trades settled via ECC. The Exchange Council members welcomed CLTX to EEX Group.
Furthermore, the Exchange Council approved the introduction of new products. Regarding the Power Market, the Council approved the introduction of exchange trading in financially settled Italian Power Futures (base and peak load) with weekly, monthly, quarterly and annual maturities. This product will be launched following the positive customer feedback on the Trade Registration offer on this market which the participants can use to register Italian OTC trades on EEX for clearing via ECC. Since the launch in October 2013, more than 7 TWh of power have been registered in this product. The Exchange Council approved the inclusion of the new products in the contract specifications. Exchange trading in Italian Power Futures is to be launched on 7 April 2014.
On PEGAS, the gas platform jointly operated by EEX and Powernext, the product offering is to be expanded with Spot and Derivatives Contracts for the British National Balancing Point (NBP) as well as for the Belgian market areas Zeebrugge Beach (ZEE) and Zeebrugge Trading Point (ZTP). Also, in line with the new products, the bandwidth of location spread products will increase. Amongst others, participants will be able to trade the very liquid spread between ZEE and NBP in the future and clear them via ECC. The Exchange Council expressly welcomed this expansion of the market areas since this would be decisive for the strategic positioning of PEGAS on the market and approved the required amendments of the rules and regulations. The launch of the new PEGAS products is planned for the second quarter of 2014.
As a further item on the agenda, the Exchange Council approved the introduction of a new membership category – the so-called “Non-Trading Broker”. Brokers are market participants who register trades with EEX on behalf of customers and then submit these trades to the trading participants (so-called “Give-up/Take-up”). At present, brokers establish trading positions to this end – even if only for a short time – and, therefore, they need an exchange and clearing license. The introduction of the new membership aims to ensure that the trade is registered directly in the buyer’s and seller’s position account so that the brokers do not have to hold any positions. With this measure, EEX further facilitates the submission of trades to exchange clearing. This new broker category is to be implemented in the second quarter of 2014 in the context of further solutions for straight-through processing.
Finally, the panel members of the Sanctions Committee were elected and appointed at the meeting. The Sanctions Committee is called in upon a request by the Management Board of the Exchange or the Exchange Supervisory Authority and can impose sanctions on trading participants in the event of violations of the rules and regulations. While the two chairing members, Prof. Dr. Jürgen Kühling and Prof. Dr. Ulrich Ehricke, are appointed for an indefinite term, the panel members are appointed for a term of three years.
In line with this term of office, the following panel members of the Sanctions Committee were appointed:
Dr. Wolf B. von Bernuth, Energy & More Energiebroker GmbH & Co. KG,
Pierre Chevalier, DB Energie GmbH,
Werner Fleischer, VERBUND AG,
Ralf Henze, Stadtwerke Hannover AG,
Christophe Solere, Susquehanna Ireland Ltd
Dr. Bernhard Walter, EnBW Trading GmbH
The Exchange Council of EEX is an official body of the exchange under the German Exchange Act. It consists of a total of 24 members who expertly represent the various relevant interest groups and business circles. In addition to the trading participants, 19 elected members from five different voting groups, four representatives from associations and one investors’ representative are members. The tasks of the Exchange Council include the formulation of the rules and regulations of the exchange and their amendments. The Exchange Council is also tasked with the supervision of the Management Board of the Exchange and the appointment of the Head of the Market Surveillance.