40 new Equity Total Return Futures (ETRFs) have been launched on 31 January 2022, expanding the Eurex offering in this segment to around 290 companies. The new instruments are a capital efficient alternative to popular OTC equity swaps and offer the advantages of a listed product, thus further facilitating equity financing.
Total Return Futures (TRF) were introduced by Eurex in 2016 and, in the short time since, the products have caught on very quickly as they offer an efficient, centrally cleared and exchange-traded alternative to OTC total return swaps.
Unlike a swap, ETRFs are subject to exchange rules, which brings a whole range of cost, risk and operational benefits – especially important at a time when increasingly stringent regulations, such as the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR), are taking effect. ETRFs offer market participants a solution that improves the cost of capital, compliance, and the risk management profile of the transaction.
Since index TRFs have already attracted almost half the volume of the OTC market, Eurex sees good opportunities to repeat this success with single stocks.