Euronext.liffe, the international derivatives business of Euronext, will cut the cost of registering UK and US Universal Stock Futures through its Bclear service by up to 41% from 1 May 20

Euronext.liffe, the international derivatives business of Euronext, will cut the cost of registering UK and US Universal Stock Futures through its Bclear service by up to 41% from 1 May 2007.

The per lot exchange fee will be reduced from 17p to 10p, whilst the exchange fee cap will be reduced from GBP160 to just GBP120, bringing fees in line with those for Continental USFs listed on Bclear.

The fee cut for UK and US USFs is the latest in a series of enhancements which Euronext.liffe has introduced for its futures and options contracts, including:

• The exchange fees for continental European USFs on Bclear were reduced on 1 March from EUR 0.25 to EUR 0.15 per lot, whilst the exchange fee cap was reduced from either EUR 480 or EUR 240 to just EUR 160.
• On 2 April Euronext.liffe started to reduce the minimum price movement for equity futures and options, thus enabling more precise trading levels. This included reducing the minimum price movement for UK USFs to one hundredth of a penny (0.01).
• On 10 April the number of USFs available on Bclear was increased to over 600, including more than 250 UK USFs.
• Also on 10 April the minimum volume threshold was reduced to just 1 lot for all USFs available through Bclear. At the same time the minimum volume threshold for a broad range of options on Bclear was also reduced to 1 lot.

Bclear is Euronext.liffe's wholesale service for registering equity derivatives contracts. In March a record 13.4 million lots were registered through Bclear of which over 8 million were USFs.

Fraser Cowie, Executive Director of Marketing at Euronext.liffe, said: 'We've made these changes at a time of rapid market growth and we're delighted they've met with such strong support. The record volumes that we witnessed during March, particularly for USFs, are a strong endorsement from customers.'