CME Group Realigns FX Business into Single Unit, Led by Paul Houston

CME Group, the world's leading derivatives marketplace, announced the realignment of its FX futures, options, cash and over-the-counter (OTC) FX businesses into a single unit, led by Paul Houston.

Paul has spent over 7 years at CME Group as Global Head of FX Products. Under the new structure, he will be responsible for the company's FX derivatives markets and its EBS cash markets business, leading the combined team to further improve client service, increase efficiencies and enhance product development across the entire FX marketplace. Global Head of EBS Jeff Ward will leave the Group in September.

Tim McCourt, Senior Managing Director, Head of Financial & OTC Products at CME Group, commented: "With the adoption of a more integrated FX business model that can better operate across futures, options, cash and OTC markets, we will significantly expand trading opportunities for our clients, while also delivering increased efficiencies and an enhanced ability to introduce new products in the dynamic FX marketplace. We have been working to create tighter alignment among all of our FX businesses since CME Group purchased EBS through its acquisition of NEX in 2018. This new structure is the last step in that process and one that, we believe, will benefit our FX clients globally."

McCourt added: "Paul is a proven leader who has played a key role in expanding our FX futures and options business, which saw average daily volume increase by 24% to 985,000 contracts last year. His experience and comprehensive knowledge of the broad FX market will benefit our entire FX business and create enhanced development opportunities for the combined team. In addition, we thank Jeff Ward for all he has done to make EBS an award-winning, go-to source for liquidity and price discovery in cash FX and look forward to continuing to build on that strong track record going forward."

Last month, CME Group released its financial results for the second quarter of 2023​, recording its eighth consecutive quarter of earnings growth with total revenue of $1,360.2 million for the quarter.