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Intercontinental Exchange

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) operates regulated exchanges, trading platforms and clearing houses, providing the services and technology required to meet the risk management needs of global market participants.

Created in 2000, ICE transformed over-the-counter (OTC) energy markets into more transparent and efficient venues for OTC energy commodity trading, introducing standardized OTC contracts listed on a centralized trading platform and providing clearing for OTC energy swaps. The electronic marketplace was developed as an alternative to the more fragmented and opaque markets in existence at the time of the company's inception. ICE became a publicly traded company in 2005, and in 2012 ICE announced the acquisition of NYSE Euronext for $8.2 billion.

Products available today via ICE's OTC energy markets, cleared OTC credit derivatives markets and transparent, regulated electronic markets include futures, options and OTC swaps contracts for managing risk across agricultural, CDS, currency, emissions, energy and equity index markets.

Regulated futures exchanges and OTC markets operated by ICE include:

  • ICE Futures U.S., a New York-based exchange, offers agricultural, energy and financial futures and options, including the U.S. Dollar Index and the Russell 2000® contracts.
  • ICE Futures Europe, a futures exchange for global energy and emissions markets, offers the benchmarkand largest crude and refined oil futures contracts in the world, ICE Brent Crude and ICE Gasoil contracts.
  • ICE Futures Canada, which lists agricultural contracts.
  • ICE OTC, which comprises a hybrid voice and electronic trading platform for CDS and an OTC energy platform offering bilateral, physical energy swaps.

Regulated clearing houses operated by ICE include ICE Clear U.S., ICE Clear Europe, ICE Clear Canada, ICE Clear Credit and ICE Trust.

ICE trading technology provides electronic trading tools, high-speed connectivity and mobile options to give market participants flexibility for customizing and executing risk management strategies across multiple markets and geographies. ICE's customers include commercial hedgers, traders, brokers, risk managers, Futures Commission Merchants (FCMs) and portfolio managers seeking to manage risks associated with physical or financial exposure.