CME Clearing and FEX Global, a Sydney-based derivatives exchange operated by FEX Global Pty Limited, plan to launch a CME-cleared energy and commodity futures and options on futures focused primarily on servicing the Asia-Pacific region. The launch is scheduled for 5:00pm Chicago time on March 25, 2021 / 10:00am Sydney time on March 26, 2021.

Trades for this market will clear under a firm exchange and product exchange of ‘FEX’. To clear FEX business, a clearing firm must be a NYMEX FCM clearing member in good standing and complete additional documentation as required by CME Clearing.

Customer positions and collateral are required to be carried in secured accounts in accordance with CFTC Regulation 30.7. FEX products will be cleared in the Base Waterfall.

On the Settlement and Banking Report for the FEX clearing cycle the funds segregation type for customer processing will be shown as CNSEG, which denotes the secured 30.7 account class.

Collateral to meet AUD-denominated requirements will be limited to AUD cash. Collateral to meet USD-denominated requirements will be limited to U.S. Treasuries, USD cash and AUD sovereign bonds.

CME Clearing has created two new settlement cycles in the APAC time zone to accommodate FEX and better support market participants in the region. CME’s intraday FEX clearing cycle will run at mid-day and the end-of-day cycle will run at the close of business, both in Sydney local time.

CME will produce all normal end of day reporting and data files in the same format that exists today for other markets. Standard FIXML trade registers will be provided.

To assist with fee processing, CME Clearing will provide a FEX-specific, monthly fee detail report for NYMEX clearing firms that clear for FEX.

Clearing applications to support FEX will generally require separate instances of the same applications used today. For example, Front End Clearing (FEC) functionality will remain the same as for other exchanges but will require a separate FEC weblink login in order to see FEX transactions.

FEX products will not be listed for trading on CME Globex or clearing on CME ClearPort. All trades will be executed on FEX’s matching platform and sent to CME Clearing.