NYSE-owner ICE says futures and options volumes hit record on regional bank stress

By John McCrank

NEW YORK, March 15 (Reuters) - Intercontinental Exchange Inc on Wednesday said investor concerns over risks from regional banks drove its futures and options volumes to record highs this week, topping the previous peak from March 12, 2020 at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ICE said overall 14.45 million futures and options contracts traded on its exchanges on Monday, including financials, energy and equities, as investors hedged risk in their portfolios, led by financial futures.

"The record level of trading activity which took place on ICE's markets on March 13 reflects a sudden change in risk sentiment in U.S. regional bank stocks, which collided with interest rate expectations that were priced for central bank tightening," said Chris Rhodes, President of ICE Futures Europe.

ICE's financials futures and options portfolio set a record of 10 million contracts traded on Monday, the highest level since May 29, 2018. For comparison, average daily volume (ADV) so far this year in ICE’s financial futures and options portfolio is 3 million contracts, the Atlanta-based company said.

Euribor, the benchmark contract for managing short term Euro related interest rate risk, saw a record 5.49 million futures and options contracts traded, surpassing the record previously set on May 29, 2018. ADV year-to-date in Euribor is 1.8 million contracts.

SONIA, the benchmark contract for UK interest rate risk, saw a record 1.17 million futures and options contracts traded.

ICE said its equity indices portfolio saw a record 2.9 million futures and options contracts traded on Monday, beating the record last set on March 14, 2022. Average daily volume in the portfolio is 423,000 contracts.

Open interest across ICE's financials futures and options portfolio is up 12% year-to-date at 22.69 million contracts, with open interest across ICE's total futures and options portfolio up 10% at 73 million contracts, the company said. (Reporting by John McCrank; Editing by Sharon Singleton)