ICD To Begin Processing CDS in March

IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE:ICE) ,today announced that ICE US Trust, LLC (ICE Trust), a New York limited liability trust company, will begin processing and clearing credit default swap (CDS) index transactions on March 9, 2009. Clearing of North American Markit CDX indexes is expected to be followed by liquid single-name CDS in the following months. ICE Trust has entered into an agreement with Markit to produce daily settlement prices required for mark-to-market pricing, margining and clearing.

ICE also announced the closing of its acquisition of The Clearing Corporation (TCC) on March 6, 2009. TCC developed the CDS risk management framework, operational processes and infrastructure for ICE Trust's clearing operations.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) today issued an exemptive order permitting ICE Trust to clear CDS transactions. In December 2008, ICE Trust received approval from the New York State Banking Department (NYBD), and on March 5, 2009, the Superintendent of the NYBD issued the authorization certificate to ICE Trust to commence business as a regulated bank based in New York. These approvals, combined with the Federal Reserve Board of Governors' approval received on March 4, mark the completion of the required regulatory reviews prior to the launch of ICE Trust.

"Regulatory approval allows ICE Trust to bring to market the most comprehensive range of CDS clearing and risk management services available today," said Jeffrey C. Sprecher, Chairman and CEO of ICE. "ICE Trust has been designed to further enhance well-functioning CDS markets by reducing counterparty and systemic risks, and increasing transparency and capital efficiency in the CDS markets. ICE will continue to work closely with the Federal Reserve and other regulatory bodies in the U.S. and abroad in implementing risk management solutions for the vital credit markets."

"Robust counterparty risk management is a cornerstone to the success of privately negotiated derivatives and of the ISDA architecture," said Eraj Shirvani, ISDA Chairman and Head of Fixed Income for EMEA, Credit Suisse. "The development of options that deliver strength, flexibility and transparency to clearing and settlement are key to the evolution of CDS. We in the industry welcome solutions that help us achieve these goals."

Bank of America, Barclays Capital, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS have supported the establishment of the clearing house for CDS transactions, and are the initial clearing members of ICE Trust. Each of these participants has completed a rigorous technical testing and validation process over the past several months. In addition, each member has made a significant contribution to establish the ICE Trust guaranty fund, which will continue to increase as positions are transferred into the clearing house.

TCC's risk management systems were developed internally based on a proprietary risk assessment methodology designed specifically for the CDS market, and have been reviewed and validated by Finance Concepts, an independent risk management consultancy, as part of the regulatory review process. TCC's methodology will be used by the clearing house to determine initial and variation margin requirements, guaranty fund requirements and official daily settlement prices.

ICE Exclusivity With Natural Gas Intelligence

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , in accordance with the terms of its agreement with Intelligence Press, Inc. (IPI), ICE will have the exclusive right to license the natural gas indices published in the Natural Gas Intelligence (NGI) newsletters for exchange settlement and clearing beginning May 1, 2009.

ICE contracts referencing NGI indices and delivery points do not require modification as the exclusivity period takes effect. Market participants with existing positions benchmarked to NGI data who wish to maintain their positions may transfer open interest to ICE using ICE's block trade capabilities.

In March 2007, ICE entered into a purchase and leaseback agreement with IPI for the exclusive right to license the NGI indices. IPI continues to collect, aggregate and publish prices in the wholesale natural gas market. In addition to providing daily and monthly spot price discovery for the industry, NGI's indices are used by ICE and other licensees for daily and monthly settlement and clearing, particularly in the Canadian, Midwest and California natural gas markets.

ICE to Start Clearing Agricultural Swaps

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , an operator of regulated global futures exchanges and over-the- counter (OTC) markets, announced today that ICE Clear U.S.(TM) will begin clearing sugar, coffee and cocoa swap contracts on January 30, 2009.
As previously announced, the three contracts will be cleared by ICE Clear U.S. and will be cash-settled at expiration based on the settlement prices of the related traded futures contract. Qualifying swap agreements will be submitted to the Market Supervision department of ICE Futures U.S.(R), which will expedite the contracts for clearing.

The new cleared swaps are the first such contracts offered by ICE and are specifically designed to meet the needs of OTC market participants. ICE Clear U.S.'s September 2007 application to clear these swaps was approved by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission on December 12, 2008.

ICE Completes Derivatives Transition

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE: ICE) , has successfully transitioned its energy futures and OTC markets to ICE Clear Europe(TM). On the morning of November 3, 2008, 100 percent of open positions, or 28.5 million contract sides, were transferred from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe. The total margin requirement now managed by ICE Clear Europe for these novated positions is approximately $16.5 billion. ICE Clear Europe launched with 44 member firms.

"We want to take the opportunity to express our gratitude to members of the clearing community who have supported our transition over the course of the past year and a half," said Paul Swann, President of ICE Clear Europe. "We will continue to work closely with market participants to expand ICE Clear Europe and to offer additional benefits to our clearing firms and customers. Our next steps will be to respond to the enormous demand for additional cleared energy contracts."

"ICE Clear Europe will allow us to introduce new cleared OTC and futures contracts in our energy markets in the coming weeks and months," added David Peniket, President and Chief Operating Officer of ICE Futures Europe. "The coordinated effort by our clearing members, customers and employees to launch the first new derivatives clearing house in the U.K. will result in more products and services for the broader trading community."

"We believe ICE's commitment to clearing is demonstrated by the collaborative nature of the development of ICE Clear Europe," said ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher. "Integrated clearing, in particular, plays a central role in risk management and in the sound operation of global markets, especially in today's volatile environment. We will strive to bring further innovative risk management solutions to the global marketplace."

As the first new major clearing house in London in over a century, ICE Clear Europe was formed to provide clearing services to the global energy markets for over-the-counter and European futures transactions executed on ICE's electronic platform. ICE Clear Europe will enable the efficient development of new cleared markets to support the risk management needs of customers, with the capability to offer similar services to an expanded range of asset classes.

ICE and The Clearing Corporation CDS Agreement

IntercontinentalExchange, Inc. and The Clearing Corporation (TCC), today announced new agreements intended to advance their previously announced joint global clearing solution for Credit Default Swaps (CDS). Together with nine of the major global investment banks who are dealers in the CDS markets, ICE and TCC have entered into memorandums of understanding (MOUs) to develop a joint global clearing solution and to effect the acquisition of TCC by ICE.

Under the terms of the new agreements, ICE will acquire TCC and will form ICE US Trust (ICE Trust), a New York limited purpose trust company and subsidiary of ICE, with the support of Bank of America, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and UBS. As previously announced, ICE and TCC continue to work closely with regulators, other market participants and industry groups to develop a comprehensive central counterparty clearing solution for the CDS market. This customized solution is currently undergoing final testing in preparation for launch.

"ICE has been a long-time believer in the value that clearing brings to market participants, and we've demonstrated that belief by creating innovative clearing and risk management solutions in both the futures and the over-the-counter markets," said ICE Chairman and CEO Jeffrey C. Sprecher. "We have made a commitment to developing a market structure that reduces risk and increases transparency and capital efficiency in these important global markets, first through our acquisition of Creditex, and now through our planned acquisition of The Clearing Corporation. Both of these organizations have demonstrated strong dedication to the CDS community."

"TCC has served as a credit intermediary in a broad range of markets since 1925, and the CDS market represents an excellent opportunity to apply our expertise," said Kevin R. McClear, Chief Operating Officer of TCC. "Our work over the last two years has laid a strong foundation for a market-based solution that will significantly reduce counterparty risk and is intended to address applicable regulatory requirements."

The Boards of Directors of ICE and TCC have approved the MOUs, specific terms of which have not been disclosed at this time. The transaction is subject to the receipt of required government approvals. The parties will work toward receiving the necessary governmental approvals while working to execute definitive documents during the fourth quarter of 2008, by which time they expect to begin clearing CDS transactions through ICE Trust. Post-transaction TCC will continue to support its existing clearing customers.

ICE Moving from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe

ICE Clear Europe is to transition all of ICE Futures Europe(TM) and ICE over-the-counter (OTC) trading positions from LCH.Clearnet to ICE Clear Europe as of Monday, November 3, 2008.

The transition preparations will occur over the weekend of November 1-2. Since the earlier planned transition date of September 15, the CPS system developed for ICE Clear Europe has been used by LCH.Clearnet, representing the completion of a key phase of the technical transition. The final transition of funds and positions was delayed due to the default of a clearing member firm in September.

Since its recognition by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) on May 12, 2008, ICE Clear Europe has received membership applications from 47 clearing firms and the transfer of 100% of the open positions established at ICE Futures Europe and ICE OTC from LCH to ICE Clear Europe has been facilitated (effective at transition). Under the active oversight of the FSA, ICE Clear Europe has worked diligently with clearing members and third-party systems providers to complete the transition plan. The existing futures and OTC clearing arrangements between ICE and LCH will remain in effect until the transition is complete.

ICE Millions Added In November

ICE Futures U.S.(TM) will launch a suite of million-currency-unit foreign exchange (FX) futures contracts on November 6, 2008. The new futures contracts, known as ICE Millions and first announced on September 24, combine the benefits of futures and OTC products, bringing additional transactional efficiencies and risk management tools to the FX marketplace. ICE Millions are ten times the notional value of the existing suite of ICE FX futures and options contracts. ICE Futures U.S. also lists the U.S. Dollar Index(R) futures, which will remain the existing notional size of $1000 times the index value.\

The following contracts comprise the suite of 12 FX pairs:

Million Euro-U.S. dollar (IEO)
Million British pound - U.S. dollar (IMP)
Million U.S. dollar - Canadian dollar (ISV)
Million U.S. dollar - Japanese yen (ISN)
Million U.S. dollar - Swiss franc (IMF)
Million U.S. dollar - Swedish krona (IKX)
Million Euro - British pound (IGB)
Million Euro - Canadian dollar (IEP)
Million Euro - Japanese yen (IEJ)
Million Euro - Swedish krona (IRK)
Million Euro - Swiss franc (IRZ)
Million Aussie dollar - U.S. dollar (IAU)


Beginning November 6, ICE Millions will trade electronically on the ICE trading platform, which features the fastest trade execution times in the futures industry today. The primary benefits of the ICE Millions contracts include:

-- Centralized clearing and transaction anonymity, both of which are inherent in futures market transactions;
-- Transaction cost efficiencies compared to existing futures and OTC FX offerings;
-- Deep liquidity with at least 10 market makers;
-- Contract prices quoted using over-the-counter market convention (i.e.: the Million Euro-U.S. dollar contract will be quoted in U.S. dollars per Euro to five decimal places).
-- The rate for ICE Millions futures contracts is $1.35 per side, or per million currency unit, inclusive of exchange and clearing fees.
-- Simplicity of hedging cash market exposure with OTC-style contract design and quotation methodology for funds and proprietary traders active in the cash FX markets; and
-- Elimination of the need to roll daily cash positions.

ICE Transitions US Russell Inded

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , a has successfully transitioned the U.S. Russell Index complex to ICE Futures U.S.(TM) In June 2007, ICE signed an exclusive license agreement with Russell Investments. This agreement gives ICE exclusive rights to offer futures and options contracts based on Russell's industry-leading U.S. equity indexes, including the Russell 1000(R) Index and Russell 2000(R) Index, as well as the related value and growth indexes offered by Russell. Since the beginning of September, over 2.7 million Russell futures and options contracts have traded on the ICE platform. As of Friday, September 19, open interest in mini equivalent Russell contracts stood at 590,868 compared with 141,111 on September 2.

"We've enhanced our business by diversifying into new markets and executing on our plans to successfully expand and compete in a wide range of markets," said Jeff Sprecher, ICE Chairman and CEO. "We are proud to have the U.S. Russell Index futures complex as the cornerstone of our long-term strategy within the equity index segment. With the Russell 2000 contracts transitioned to ICE, we look forward to marketing and growing other key products within the valuable Russell suite."

"The transition reflects the industry's reliance on the Russell indexes as key benchmarks. In a short time, ICE's marketplace and platform have proven to deliver value in the dynamic equity index markets," said Kelly Haughton, Strategic Director of the Russell Indexes. "ICE has already demonstrated its commitment to building the Russell complex and to bringing effective risk management processes and marketing resources to our indexes. We look forward to continuing our work with the ICE team in capitalizing on the increasing investor interest in the Russell Index futures and options markets."

IntercontinentalExchange Postpones ICE Clear Europe

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , has announced today that the launch of ICE Clear Europe has been postponed, citing the turmoil in the financial markets following the collapse of Lehman Brothers

The new launch date has not been decided but is likely to be in late September or October. The technology phase of the transition was successfully completed as planned on Saturday, September 13.

"Given the success of the implementation of the transition plan this weekend, we are confident that the transfer will proceed smoothly on a rescheduled date," said ICE President and Chief Operating Officer Chuck Vice. "This decision was made in continuous consultation with industry participants throughout the weekend, and in the interest of the broader market, in order to respond appropriately to the current dynamic environment."

IntercontinentalExchange Claims No Lehman Exposure

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , an operator of global regulated exchanges and over-the- counter (OTC) markets, confirmed that Lehman Brothers continues to meet all obligations at its U.S. futures clearinghouse.

ICE Clear U.S. has conducted an analysis of Lehman's financial position as a clearing member of ICE Clear U.S.(TM), and has concluded that it continues to meet all obligations. ICE and Creditex also said that receivables relating to Lehman are immaterial.

ICE at Bank Of America

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) announced today that its Chief Financial Officer, Scott A. Hill, will speak at the Bank of America 38th Annual Investment Conference in San Francisco, CA on Monday, September 15, 2008, at 3:00 p.m. PT (6:00 p.m. ET). The presentation will be broadcast live over the Internet and can be accessed via the Investors & Media page of the company's website at www.theice.com

Russell 2000 Record on ICE

ICE Futures U.S.(TM), announced that its mini Russell 2000(R) Index futures contract set a third consecutive day of record volume and open interest on Wednesday, September 10. The new daily volume high of 150,883 contracts yesterday more than tripled the previous day's record of 36,230. Also on Wednesday, ICE U.S. Dollar Index(R) (USDX(R)) futures posted a new daily volume high of 47,545 contracts, surpassing the previous record established on March 13, 2008.

Beginning next Friday, September 19, Russell Index futures and options on futures contracts will for the first time trade exclusively on ICE. Over $4.4 trillion in assets and more than 99% of small cap institutional assets are benchmarked to Russell indexe

ICE Reiterates Hours During Hurricane

IntercontinentalExchange (NYSE:ICE) , has issued a reminder in advance of Hurricane Ike that all ICE OTC markets, including the Henry Hub natural gas swap, are open around-the-clock throughout the weekend, per the exchange's standard seven-day per week operating schedule.
ICE OTC energy markets will be available beginning at midnight on Friday, September 12, continuously through 6:30 p.m. ET on Monday, September 15. The markets will re-open on Monday at 7:30 p.m. ET, per the standard operating hours.

ICE's crude oil futures markets on ICE Futures Europe will also maintain standard operating hours, re-opening the afternoon of Sunday, September 14 at 6:00 p.m. ET. ICE will expand its standard after-hours and weekend support. Market participants may contact the ICE Helpdesk at (770) 738-2101 for around-the-clock market support.

IntercontinentalExchange (ICE)

IntercontinentalExchange(R) (NYSE:ICE) operates regulated global futures exchanges and over-the-counter (OTC) markets for agricultural, energy, equity index and currency contracts, as well as credit derivatives. ICE(R) offers these markets to participants around the world through its technology infrastructure and trading platform, together with clearing, market data and risk management services. ICE Futures Europe(TM) is ICE's regulated energy futures exchange. ICE's regulated North American exchanges, ICE Futures U.S.(TM) and ICE Futures Canada(TM), offer markets for agricultural and financial contracts. Creditex, a market leader in trade execution and processing for credit derivatives, is also a wholly-owned subsidiary of ICE. A member of the Russell 1000(R) and S&P 500 indices, ICE is headquartered in Atlanta, with offices in New York, London, Chicago, Winnipeg, Calgary, Houston and Singapore. www.theice.com