Houston to Lead Combined CME FX Business

Paul Houston has been named to run a realigned FX business at CME Group, a move that has brought the OTC and futures businesses closer together into a single unit for the first time. As a result of the changes, Jeff Ward, global head of EBS, will be leaving CME in September.

Houston’s new title will be global head of FX products, for the past seven years, he has led the Merc’s FX futures operation. He will be responsible for the company’s FX derivatives markets as well as its EBS cash markets business, leveraging a combined team to, CME says, “further improve client service, increase efficiencies and enhance product development across the entire FX marketplace”.

“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,” says Tim McCourt, senior managing director, head of financial and OTC products, CME Group. “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.

“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,” he adds. “His proven 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,” McCourt adds.