XML 61 R9.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.10.0.1
Description of Business
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2018
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Description of Business
Description of Business
Nature of Business and Organization
We are a leading global operator of regulated exchanges, clearing houses and listings venues, and a provider of data services for commodity, financial, fixed income and equity markets. We operate regulated marketplaces for listing, trading and clearing a broad array of derivatives contracts and securities across major asset classes, including energy and agricultural commodities, metals, interest rates, equities, exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, credit derivatives, bonds and currencies. We also offer comprehensive data services to support the trading, investment, risk management and connectivity needs of customers around the world and across 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, or CCPs, in the U.S., U.K., EU, Canada and Singapore (Note 14). 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 data services, we provide comprehensive 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 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. and U.K. (Note 18).