Digital Vega, CME Group Launch FX Options Block Trading Service

Digital Vega and CME Group Launch New Service  for FX Options Block Trading  

London, 10th September 2024 – Digital Vega, the leading FX Options e-trading platform and provider of FX Options trading solutions, and CME Group, the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, today announced the launch of a new FX options block trading service. Currently available for client testing, buy-side firms will be able to use existing OTC workflows on Digital Vega’s multi-bank platform Medusa to request quotes and trade blocks of FX options on futures.  

Market participants will be able to leverage Digital Vega’s established connectivity, GUI and workflow technology to request prices in CME Group’s centrally cleared FX options from multiple Liquidity Providers in competition.  These options can be significantly more margin efficient versus traditional OTC options for those subject to Uncleared Margin Rules. 

“Enabling customers to negotiate and trade risk-transfer blocks via Digital Vega’s Medusa platform is an exciting development in the electronification of the FX options market,” said Chris Povey, Executive Director and Head of FX Options, CME Group. “This partnership lowers the barriers to entry for buy-side clients looking to gain the margin and operational benefits of our centrally cleared FX options by allowing them to use existing OTC workflows and lean on OTC relationships.  In addition, clients could gain access to new liquidity given there is no requirement for bilateral credit relationships.” 

“Trading CME Group’s FX blocks on Digital Vega’s multi-dealer platform, provides a seamless execution solution to both buy-side and sell-side participants. Pricing and execution is in a format familiar to OTC traders, with deep liquidity provided by a broad group of market makers, and booking to a single central counterparty. This mitigates counterparty credit risk and generates potentially significant capital, margin, and operational efficiencies. Transaction reporting to CME ClearPort is automated and immediate, with detailed post-trade reporting and analytics available,” said Mark Suter, Executive Chairman and Co-Founder, Digital Vega. 

He added, “Our new service provides liquidity access for more clients and market makers to trade with each other without having to establish new bilateral credit agreements, which we expect will result in increased liquidity for the market as a whole. We are encouraging clients to onboard to this service now so that they can fully test the system before they begin trading.”  —END—  
About Digital Vega:
Digital Vega is an independent company operating the pioneering Medusa, Hydra and Vega FX Options trading platforms. Our client-driven focus and unparalleled liquidity has made us the market leader in the OTC FX options marketplace. 

As more OTC and derivatives markets migrate to electronic trading models, driven by regulations and client demand, Digital Vega is at the forefront of these new developments. It continues to add new financial products, support new asset classes and bring new market innovations to its award-winning platform.


All major global FX banks and most of the FX Prime Brokers provide liquidity to Digital Vega. Clients are Institutional Investors, Hedge Funds, Asset Managers, Agency Brokers, and Regional and Private Banks. Formed in 2010, Digital Vega is headquartered in London, and is backed by strategic institutional investors. For more information, visit www.digitalvega.com  

About CME Group:As the world’s leading derivatives marketplace, CME Group (www.cmegroup.com) enables clients to trade futures, options, cash and OTC markets, optimize portfolios, and analyze data – empowering market participants worldwide to efficiently manage risk and capture opportunities. CME Group exchanges offer the widest range of global benchmark products across all major asset classes based on interest ratesequity indexesforeign exchangeenergyagricultural products and metals

The company offers futures and options on futures trading through the CME Globex platform, fixed income trading via BrokerTec and foreign exchange trading on the EBS platform.  In addition, it operates one of the world’s leading central counterparty clearing providers, CME Clearing.   CME Group, the Globe logo, CME, Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Globex, and E-mini are trademarks of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc.  CBOT and Chicago Board of Trade are trademarks of Board of Trade of the City of Chicago, Inc.  NYMEX, New York Mercantile Exchange and ClearPort are trademarks of New York Mercantile Exchange, Inc.  COMEX is a trademark of Commodity Exchange, Inc. BrokerTec is a trademark of BrokerTec Americas LLC and EBS is a trademark of EBS Group LTD. The S&P 500 Index is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (“S&P DJI”). “S&P®”, “S&P 500®”, “SPY®”, “SPX®”, US 500 and The 500 are trademarks of Standard & Poor’s Financial Services LLC; Dow Jones®, DJIA® and Dow Jones Industrial Average are service and/or trademarks of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. These trademarks have been licensed for use by Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. Futures contracts based on the S&P 500 Index are not sponsored, endorsed, marketed, or promoted by S&P DJI, and S&P DJI makes no representation regarding the advisability of investing in such products. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.