Description of Business

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2016

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Description of Business

Description of Business

We are a leading global operator of regulated exchanges, clearing houses and listings venues, and a provider of data services for commodity and financial markets. We operate regulated marketplaces for trading, listing and clearing a broad array of derivatives and securities contracts across major asset classes, including energy and agricultural commodities, interest rates, equities, equity derivatives, exchange traded funds, credit derivatives, bonds and currencies. We offer end-to-end market data services to support the trading, investment, risk management and connectivity needs of customers across virtually all asset classes.

Our exchanges include futures exchanges in the United States, or U.S., United Kingdom, or U.K., Continental Europe, Canada and Singapore, and cash equities, equity options and bond exchanges in the U.S. We also operate over-the-counter, or OTC, markets for physical energy and credit default swaps, or CDS, trade execution. To serve global derivatives markets, we operate central counterparty clearing houses in the U.S., U.K., Continental Europe, Canada and Singapore (Note 9). We offer a range of data and connectivity services to customers in global financial and commodity markets, including fixed income pricing and reference data, analytics, feeds, desktops and connectivity solutions. Through our markets, clearing houses, listings and data services, we provide end-to-end solutions for our customers through liquid markets, benchmark products, access to capital markets, information, and a range of related services to support their ability to manage risk and raise capital.