CFTC No-Action Letter 02-38: Eurex Deutschland futures on Dow Jones STOXX 600 and EURO STOXX Banking Sector Indices

CFTC Letter 02-38
CFTC Letter No. 02-38
April 2, 2002
No-Action
Division of Trading and Markets
Edward J. Rosen, Esq.
Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton
One Liberty Plaza
New York, NY 10006-1470
Re: Eurex Deutschland’s Request for No-Action Relief in Connection with the Offer and Sale of its futures contracts based on the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Banking Sector Index and the Dow Jones EURO STOXX Banking Sector Index in the United States Dear Mr. Rosen:
This is in response to your letters, attachments, facsimiles and electronic mail dated from November 2, 2001 to February 8, 2002, requesting that the Office of General Counsel (“Office”) of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“Commission” or "CFTC") issue a “no-action” letter concerning the offer and sale in the United States (“U.S.”) of futures contracts based on the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Banking Sector Index (“STOXX 600 Banking Sector Index”) and the Dow Jones EURO STOXX Banking Sector Index (“EURO STOXX Banking Sector Index”) (collectively, “Indices”) traded on Eurex Deutschland (“Eurex”). We understand the facts to be as follows. Eurex is a futures and options exchange located in Frankfurt, Germany and operated by Eurex Frankfurt AG. Eurex is regulated by and subject to active market surveillance by self-regulatory agencies, the Exchange Supervisory Authority in the State of Hesse, where Eurex is located, and by the German Federal Supervisory Office for Securities Trading (the “BAWe”). Pursuant to the German Securities Trading Act, the BAWe has responsibility for the supervision of German securities and derivatives trading, and has the authority to cooperate with competent authorities of other countries in connection with the supervision of securities and derivatives markets and trading activity thereon, including by sharing non-public market surveillance information. The STOXX 600 Banking Sector Index and the EURO STOXX Banking Sector Index are both broad-based, “free-float” capitalization-weighted Indices designed and administered by STOXX Limited, a joint venture of Deutsch Börse AG, Dow Jones & Company, Euronext Paris SA and Swiss Exchange SWX.[1] The STOXX 600 Banking Sector Index is a subset of the Dow Jones STOXX 600 Index, which is composed of the 600 largest stocks in the Dow Jones STOXX Total Market Index. The latter is designed to measure 95 percent of the “free-float” market capitalization of the investable universe of publicly-traded stocks in Europe. The STOXX 600 file:///S|/Website%20Management/LegacyDataCopyasof2010-04-21/tm/letters/02letters/tm02-38.htm (1 of 6) [5/6/2010 5:43:57 PM]