Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. (ICE) is an American multinational financial services company formed in 2000 that operates global financial exchanges and clearing houses and provides mortgage technology, data and listing services. Listed on the Fortune 500, S&P 500, and Russell 1000, the company owns exchanges for financial and commodity markets, and operates 12 regulated exchanges and marketplaces. This includes ICE futures exchanges in the United States, Canada, and Europe; the Liffe futures exchanges in Europe; the New York Stock Exchange, the world's largest stock exchange in terms of total market capitalization of its listed companies; equity options exchanges; and OTC energy, credit, and equity markets.
ICE also owns and operates six central clearing houses: ICE Clear U.S., ICE Clear Europe, ICE Clear Singapore, ICE Clear Credit, ICE Clear Netherlands, and ICE NGX. ICE has offices in Atlanta; New York; London; Chicago; Bedford, MA; Houston; Winnipeg; Amsterdam; Calgary; Washington, D.C.; San Francisco; Pleasanton; Tel Aviv; Rome; Hyderabad; Singapore; and Melbourne.
History
Jeffrey Sprecher was a power plant developer who spotted a need for a seamless market in natural gas used to fuel power stations.[2] In the late 1990s, Sprecher acquired Continental Power Exchange, Inc. with the objective of developing an Internet-based platform to provide a more transparent and efficient market structure for over-the-counter energy commodity trading.[3]
In May 2000, ICE was founded by Sprecher and backed by Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, BP, Total, UniCredit, Shell, Deutsche Bank and Société Générale.[4][5]
Mergers, Acquisitions and Strategic Investments
Intercontinental Exchange has had a policy to grow through the acquisition of other exchanges, a number of these have been successful while others have failed due to concerns by regulators or others that the new company would have created a monopoly situation. The major acquisition and attempted acquisitions have included:
2001: International Petroleum Exchange (IPE)
In June 2001, ICE expanded its business into futures trading by acquiring the London-based International Petroleum Exchange (IPE), now ICE Futures Europe, which operated Europe's leading open-outcry energy futures exchange. Since 2003, ICE has partnered with the Chicago Climate Exchange (CCX) to host its electronic marketplaces. In April 2005, the entire ICE portfolio of energy futures became fully electronic and ICE closed International Petroleum Exchange's high profile and historic trading floor.[3]
2007: New York Board of Trade (NYBOT)
ICE became a publicly traded company on November 16, 2005, and was added to the Russell 1000 Index on June 30, 2006. The company expanded rapidly in 2007, acquiring the New York Board of Trade (NYBOT),[12]
Operations
ICE provides exchange trading and clearing services in a number of different markets. Its main products include:
The company is split into the following subsidiaries:
- Exchange traded futures and options
- Agriculture
- Financials
- Crude Oil and Refined
- Electricity
- Natural Gas/Liquids
- UK Natural Gas
- Other
- Over-the-counter instruments (ICE OTC)
- Crude Oil and Refined
- Natural Gas
- Electricity
- Markets
- ICE Futures U.S.
ICE Data Services
In June 2016 Intercontinental Exchange introduced the expanded ICE Data Services, which combined exchange data, valuations, analytics, and other software used by the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), SuperDerivatives and Interactive Data (IDC).[60]
ICE originally formed its ICE Data subsidiary in 2003, recognizing the rising demand for exchange data as markets became increasingly automated. ICE continues to invest in its data services to address evolving customer needs driven by regulatory reform, market fragmentation, passive investing and indexation, along with increased demand for data capacity and security, and independent valuations. Their customers include global financial institutions, asset managers, commercial hedging firms, risk managers, corporate issuers and individual investors.
ICE Data Services has offices in California, New York, Chicago, Bedford MA, London, Rome, Dublin, Tel Aviv, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Hyderabad and Melbourne.
See also
- List of futures exchanges
- Securities market participants (United States)
- CCP Global
External links
References
- US SEC: Form 10-K Intercontinental Exchange, Inc. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, February 6, 2025, retrieved February 6, 2025^
- "Atlanta-based ICE operates four regulated futures exchanges, two over-the-counter markets and five clearing houses globally. Its growth from a small energy exchange since the early 2000s has been influential in the evolution of the derivatives markets since then, paralleling the rise of commodities as a mainstream asset class, the consolidation of the exchange industry, the disappearance of the floor trader with the move to all-electronic trading platforms and the growth of swaps clearing." Timeline: Growth of the IntercontinentalExchange Reuters, December 20, 2012, retrieved August 4, 2013^