Release:                      #4333-99
For Release:              November 4, 1999

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CFTC STAFF REPORTS THAT U.S. FUTURES MARKETS
REMAIN GLOBAL COMPETITORS

Washington --The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's Division of Economic Analysis issued a report comparing the global competitiveness of U.S. futures and option markets to their counterparts abroad. The report, entitled The Global Competitiveness of U.S. Futures Markets Revisited, updates a 1994 CFTC study, using the same methodology as the earlier study. It also compares aspects of U.S. and non-U.S. regulatory systems.

The report finds that:

• Both total U.S. and total foreign futures and option trading volume have increased significantly over the period 1994-1998;
  
• The U.S. share of total worldwide futures and option trading activity appears to be stabilizing as the larger foreign markets have matured;
  
• As in 1994, the most actively traded foreign products tend to fill local or regional risk management needs and few products offered by foreign exchanges directly duplicate products offered by U.S. markets;
  
• The increased competition among mature segments of the global futures industry, particularly in Europe, may reflect industry restructuring and the introduction of new technologies, particularly electronic trading; and
  
• To date, the distinctions in regulatory regimes between various countries do not appear to have been a significant factor in the competitive position of the world's leading exchanges.

The report further concludes that the potential operational cost savings generated by the adoption of new technologies and industry restructuring and the ability of exchanges to provide liquid markets will be among the most important factors in shaping the futures industry's structure in the twenty-first century.

The report is available on the CFTC Web site at http://www.cftc.gov/dea/compete/deacompete.htm.

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