CME Exec Chairman Terry Duffy: Today Is “Business As Usual”

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CME Exec Chairman Terry Duffy: Today Is "Business As Usual"

CME Group Inc (NASDAQ:CME) Executive Chairman Terry Duffy spoke with FOX Business Network’s (FBN) Sandra Smith about opening the markets following Hurricane Sandy. Duffy stated that today’s open was “really orderly for the most part” and that they are “kind of seeing business as usual right now.” Duffy also addressed whether closing the markets on Monday and Tuesday caused people to lose faith in the electronic system, saying “there’s no truth to that. We have the most robust system in the world. We were prepared to go, but we did what we thought was the right thing with the industry to make sure all the participants could be available to trade in the markets.”

Excerpts from the interview are below:

On the market open following Hurricane Sandy:

“I think it’s been really orderly for the most part. Obviously the market opened up actually a little bit better now and it’s trading a little higher in the day. Some people were worried about pent up demand in the sell side, obviously we didn’t see that and we are kind of seeing business as usual right now.”

On whether closing the markets on Monday and Tuesday was necessary:

“We were open in overnight session as you know, but we were not open during the day. I think why it was necessary because of the catastrophic event we saw in New York. This is not something we see every day. So when you cannot put human life ahead of the markets. I think that’s what most important here, and people did not have access to get to the marketplace in order to trade even electronically, so even though you can trade automated, you still need to have people man those systems. And that is what’s critically important also.”

On whether people are losing faith in the electronic system:

“No there’s absolutely no truth to that what so ever. We have the most robust system in the world. We were prepared to go, but we did what we thought was the right thing with the industry to make sure all the participants could be available to trade in the markets, and that way we did not have a dislocation by people not having access even to the technology platforms.”

On whether he thinks the markets are safer today post MF Global:

“I truly do. Markets are definitely safer today. We’ve implemented several new procedures in place since MF Global happened, so I am very confident that markets are much safer today than before.”

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