Four participant categories, four permission sets, one order book. Everything on this page is disclosed before an account is opened and again on every confirmation.
| Category | Who qualifies | Accounts | Onboarding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | Any natural person over 18 in a served jurisdiction | 214,000 | 4 minutes |
| Professional | Entities meeting the standard threshold on two of three tests | 96 | 6 to 9 weeks |
| Licensed Contributor | Professional participants contributing deployment schedules under licence | 41 | Included in above |
| Determination Member | Holder of one of the eleven committee seats | 11 | By appointment |
Licensed Contributor is a permission attaching to a Professional account rather than a separate account type. Determination Members are drawn from the Licensed Contributor pool, from the retail representative panel, and from the independent appointment.
| Permission | Retail | Professional | Licensed Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|
| Buy cover | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Write cover on a third-party reference | No | Yes | Yes |
| Write cover on a reference within own workforce | Not applicable | Yes | Yes |
| View vendor deployment schedules | No | On licence | Yes, contributed |
| Trade ahead of a scheduled announcement | No | Yes, subject to disclosure | Yes, subject to disclosure |
| File a determination notice | Yes, fee payable | Yes, fee payable | Yes, fee payable |
| Vote on a determination | Through 2 panel seats | If seated | If seated |
Deployment schedules are the principal input to the loading and therefore to the price. They are licensed to us by the organisations that hold them, which are in most cases the same organisations quoting cover on the roles those schedules concern. The arrangement is disclosed at every stage, is reflected in the quoted spread, and is why that spread is 40 basis points on obsolescence notes rather than several hundred.
Price formation in a personal forward-risk market depends on a class of participant able to quote continuously and at size. That class is defined by the quality of its reference data, not by its appetite.
Where the difference of view between two counterparties is one of opinion, quoted depth is thin, the spread is wide and fills are unreliable. Where one side holds licensed reference data on the underlying, it can quote a firm two-way price throughout the session because its risk is quantified. The resulting depth is what allows a retail participant to open an account in four minutes, deal in 500 EUR clips, and receive the same published formula price as a counterparty dealing in size.
| Measure | Retail | Professional |
|---|---|---|
| Accounts | 214,000 | 96 |
| Open notional | 1.9 bn EUR (11.4 per cent) | 14.8 bn EUR (88.6 per cent) |
| Mean position | 8,879 EUR | 154.2 m EUR |
| Direction | Net buyer of cover in 94 per cent of transactions | Net seller in 91 per cent |
| Determination seats | 2 of 11 | 9 of 11 |
The mean professional position is 17,364 times the mean retail position, and accounts run 2,229 retail to each professional account. Both figures are published quarterly in the liquidity report alongside quoted depth and fill statistics.
| Category | Transaction fee | On the numbers above | Share of fee revenue |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 0.90 per cent of notional | 17,100,000 EUR | 59.1 per cent |
| Professional | 0.08 per cent of notional | 11,840,000 EUR | 40.9 per cent |
| Licensed Contributor | Nil, plus data credit of 4 bp on referencing notional | Credit of 5,920,000 EUR | Not applicable |
Retail pays 11.25 times the professional rate. On the published notional split, retail holds 11.4 per cent of the exposure and provides 59.1 per cent of the transaction revenue. The differential funds the retail platform, the four-minute account opening, the published pricing formula and the two panel seats.
Retail. Identity verification, jurisdiction check, appropriateness assessment, funding. Four minutes end to end on a phone. The assessment is eleven questions, set by us, covering the pricing formula, the settlement mechanic and the information basis described above. Of 41,900 assessments completed, 40,224 were passed, a pass rate of 96.0 per cent. Participants who do not pass may retake the assessment immediately.
Professional. Threshold testing on portfolio size, transaction frequency and relevant sector experience, two of three required. Documentation, credit line, master agreement, and where applicable a data contribution licence. Six to nine weeks. A named coverage officer is assigned at signature and does not change.
Retail representation. The two retail representative seats on the determination committee are filled by election among retail accountholders on a two-year cycle. Turnout at the last election was 3.1 per cent. Candidate statements, voting records and committee minutes are published in the governance section of the monthly report.</div>
Retail accounts close on request, same day, with open positions bought back at mid and funds returned within two business days. There is no exit fee. Consent instruments granted through the platform survive the closure of the account, transfer automatically on any change of control, and are not affected by withdrawal. This is disclosed at grant and again in the closing confirmation.