CME Group to shut London exchange, clearing house

CME Group, the world’s largest futures exchange operator, is to shut its loss-making London bourse and clearing house after its failed to gain traction among European customers.

The businesses will close by the end of the year, the Chicago group said on Wednesday, although it would not close its London office or its technology centre in Belfast. It added that the decision was not connected to the UK’s decision to leave the EU.

The five-year old CME Europe and CME Clearing were set up as a regulatory hedge and offered foreign exchange and energy trading, as well as over-the-counter interest rate swaps clearing.

However most customers in Europe preferred to trade and clear the CME’s most actively-traded products in the US, which is where they are based. Its future had been under review by new chief executive Terry Duffy, who took over from Phupinder Gill last November.