British Council Education Fair 2013, Athens, Greece

According to the Financial Times, 31st October 2017, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange (CME) is expected to offer cash-settled futures contracts on Bitcoin by the end of 2017. CME, the world’s largest exchange by market value, has offered futures contracts on agricultural products, metals, energy, equity indexes, foreign exchange rates, interest rates, real estate, and even weather. With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, the CME has finally decided to enter into the unregulated digital asset market. Futures contracts on Bitcoin may help investors to either hedge or speculate on the future price of Bitcoin. Because almost all futures contracts are cash-settled in CME, traders do not need to actually deliver Bitcoin.

A new supplementary paper from the ICMA’s European Repo Council, written by Richard Comotto, explains the importance of collateral to the stability and efficiency of the financial system. The paper highlights how the proposed Financial Transaction Tax (FTT) would impact the movement of collateral, posing significant systemic risks and interrupting the flow of money between banks, to governments and to the real economy.

The ICMA Centre celebrated the start of work on the Centre's extension and the new University of Reading Business School building last week. The Commencement Ceremony which was followed by a champagne reception was attended by more than 200 guests, including businesses from the City and all over the world, as well as staff and alumni.