OREANDA-NEWS. December 6, 2011. RTS has been awarded for best innovations by the Futures and Options World magazine for the third time in succession.

In 2011 RTS won two FOW Awards for Innovation:

Best innovation by an exchange in the field of product design – Eastern Europe

for the launch of wheat futures contract in cooperation with Saint Petersburg Exchange.

Best innovation by an exchange in the field of customer service – Europe

for joint initiatives with regional partners.

On March 15, 2011 RTS Group and Saint Petersburg Exchange launched trading in a new instrument, a cash-settled futures contract on wheat. The launch is part of a joint program between RTS Group and Saint Petersburg Exchange. The latter acts as an organizer of trading, whereas RTS Clearing Center and RTS Settlement Chamber are responsible for clearing and settlement respectively. The users of the wheat futures contract include grain merchants, Russian wheat producers, hedgers, private investors, brokerage firms and market-makers.

Another project carried out by RTS Group and Saint Petersburg Exchange was the launch of a futures contract on summer gasoil with settlement based on KORTES Index in April 2010.

In addition, futures contracts on average power price indices were introduced in the framework of cooperation between RTS Group and Moscow Energy Exchange in November 2010.

These joint initiatives aim to facilitate development of regional financial markets thanks to RTS’s technology, contract design, customer access and post-trade services skills.

Since its launch in 1982, the professional trade magazine FOW has been at the heart of the futures and options business. Its subscribers and readers are global investment funds and banks, professional stock market participants as well as private investors all around the globe. FOW's Annual Awards for Innovation include seven regional awards for the best innovations by exchanges in the field of product design: North America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Middle East, Africa, East Asia, South and Southeast Asia and Australia.