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Description of Business
3 Months Ended
Mar. 31, 2018
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, fixed income and equity markets. We operate regulated marketplaces for listing, trading 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, or ETFs, credit derivatives, bonds and currencies. We also offer end-to-end data services and solutions to support the trading, investment, risk management and connectivity needs of customers around the world across all major asset classes.
Our exchanges include derivative exchanges in the United States, or U.S., United Kingdom, or U.K., European Union, or EU, 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, fixed income 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., EU, Canada and Singapore (Note 10). We offer a range of data services for global financial and commodity markets, including pricing and reference data, exchange data, analytics, feeds, index services, desktops and connectivity solutions. Through our markets, clearing houses, listings and market data services, we provide end-to-end solutions for our customers through liquid markets, benchmark products, access to capital markets, and related services to support their ability to manage risk and raise capital. Our business is currently conducted as two reportable business segments, our Trading and Clearing segment and our Data and Listings segment, and the majority of our identifiable assets are located in the U.S., U.K. and Canada (Note 13).