Commodities brokers and futures merchants in Quebec now have direct access to ICE Futures Canada’s canola and barley futures and options contracts.
The former Winnipeg Commodity Exchange announced Thursday that it has picked up approval from Quebec’s provincial Autorite des marches financiers (AMF, Quebec’s financial markets authority) to market its derivatives in Quebec.
The AMF hadn’t asserted jurisdiction over the exchange until ICE ended the open-outcry pit trading system in Winnipeg in 2004 and moved to a fully-electronic trading platform. Atlanta-based IntercontinentalExchange (ICE) moved ICE Futures Canada trading to its own ICE platform in late 2007.
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Following the move to electronic trading, under AMF rules, brokers in Quebec were unable to directly use ICE Futures Canada terminals, and would have to deal in ICE’s canola and barley futures and options through brokers in other provinces.
The AMF’s ruling, dated Feb. 23, gives ICE Futures Canada and its designated clearinghouse, ICE Clear Canada, exemptions from provincial rules for recognition of a body as an exchange or published market within Quebec.
The AMF has also exempted ICE Futures and ICE Clear Canada from the provincial Derivatives Act’s rules regarding its qualification to create or market derivatives.
The rulings also grant regulator status over ICE Futures Canada’s activities to the Manitoba Securities Commission, while the AMF would be considered ICE’s “exempting regulator” in Quebec.
With these exemptions, ICE Futures Canada won’t need to have a physical office within Quebec, but will still have to file its financial statements and other required documentation with both the Manitoba commission and the AMF.
ICE will also be required to handle its Quebec business following Quebec laws on privacy and confidentiality, and to retain a lawyer to represent it within the province.
