Intercontinental Exchange Inc 's

The markets in which we operate are global and highly competitive. We face competition in all aspects of our business from a number of different enterprises, both domestic and international, including traditional exchanges, electronic trading platforms and voice brokers. Prior to the passage of the Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000, or CFMA, futures trading was generally required to take place on, or subject to the rules of, a designated contract market. The costs and difficulty of obtaining contract market designation and corresponding regulatory requirements created significant barriers to entry for competing exchanges. The CFMA and changing market dynamics, including electronic trading, have led to increased competition from a number of different domestic and international sources of varied size, business objectives and resources.

We believe we compete on the basis of a number of factors, including:
depth and liquidity of markets;
price transparency;
reliability and speed of trade execution and processing;
technological capabilities and innovation;
breadth of product range;
rate and quality of new product developments;
quality of service;
distribution and ease of connectivity; mid- and back-office service offerings, including differentiated and value-added services;
transaction costs; and reputation.

We believe that we compete favorably with respect to these factors, and that our deep, liquid markets, breadth of product offerings, new product development, and efficient, secure settlement, clearing and support services distinguish us from our competitors. We believe that in order to maintain our competitive position, we must continue to develop new and innovative products and services, enhance our technology infrastructure, maintain liquidity and offer competitive transaction costs.
The financial services segment is highly competitive, with competition increasing as markets have globalized and following the implementation of financial reform regulation. Certain competitors include exchanges that replicate our futures contracts. For example, CME Group, the largest derivatives exchange in the United States with 86% market share of all U.S. futures contracts traded, competes with our exchanges on agricultural and energy commodities, currency and equity index contracts. NYSE Liffe and NYSE Liffe U.S. compete with the OTC markets as well as a number of international derivatives exchanges, including the CME, Eurex, which is the derivatives platform operated by Deutsche Börse, and NLX, which is the derivative platform operated by Nasdaq.

We compete with voice brokers active in certain of the OTC energy and credit derivatives markets, other electronic trading platforms for derivatives, clearing houses and market data vendors. ICE Swap Trade, Creditex and Creditex Brokerage compete with other swap execution facilities and large inter-dealer brokers in the credit derivatives market.
In addition to competition from derivative exchanges that offer commodity products, we also face competition from other exchanges, electronic trading systems, third-party clearing houses, futures commission merchants and technology firms. Further, certain financial services or technology companies have entered the OTC trade execution services market. Additional joint ventures and consortia could form, or have been formed, to provide services that could potentially compete with certain services that we provide.

In the United States, we face significant competition with respect to cash trading, and this competition is expected to remain intense. Our current and prospective competitors include regulated markets, electronic communication networks, dark pools and other alternative trading systems, market makers and other execution venues. The recently announced proposed combination of BATS Global Markets, Inc. and Direct Edge, LLC may increase competitive pressures. We also face growing competition from large brokers and customers that may assume the role of principal and act as counterparty to orders originating from retail customers, or by matching their respective order flows through bilateral trading arrangements, including through internalization of order flow. Some of these competitors are among our largest customers or are owned by our customers. In particular, many of our key customers are prioritizing their internalization and alternative trading system businesses ahead of their exchange-based market making business.

In the United States, our principal competitor for listings is Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc., or Nasdaq OMX. The U.S. capital markets face competition for foreign issuer listings from a number of stock exchanges outside the United States, including London Stock Exchange plc, Deutsche Börse Group and exchanges in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Toronto, Singapore and Australia. As other liquidity venues seek exchange status, we may face more competition for listings.
NYSE Arca and NYSE Amex Options face considerable competition in equity derivatives trading. Their principal U.S. competitors are the Chicago Board Options Exchange, Inc., or CBOE, the International Securities Exchange Holdings, Inc., BATS Global Markets, Inc., or BATS, the Boston Options Exchange Group, LLC and the Nasdaq OMX, as well as startups such as Miami International Securities Exchange, LLC, and ELX Futures, L.P., backed by a consortium of banks and other market participants.