Deutsche Börse to Cooperate With Osaka

Deutsche Börse, the German stock market operator, said on Monday that its derivatives market Eurex was looking into ways of cooperating with the Osaka Securities Exchange (OSE). "Eurex and OSE have signed a memorandum of understanding, in which the two exchanges agreed to explore means of cooperation in order to extend the global reach of both exchanges," Deutsche Börse said in a statement. "Under the terms of the memorandum, Eurex and OSE have agreed to share information with a view to furthering the distribution of financial derivatives in Asia and Europe." The two partners already had a long-standing relationship. "The memorandum will be an important step towards bringing

European and Asian market participants closer together and help Eurex to extend its reach into the fast growing Asian market," said Eurex chairman Rudolf Ferscha. OSE president and chief executive officer Michio Yoneda said: "I hope this will present a good picture of the future of our industry with enlarged product lines, increased number of participants and improved accessibility between Europe and Asia." Eurex, which is a joint venture between Deutsche Börse and the Zurich stock exchange, generates most of its revenues in Europe. It set up a unit in the United States in 2003, but its performance has so far fallen short of initial expectations.