BM&F Bovespa, the Brazilian exchange group, will begin the first stage of its trading platform upgrade, developed jointly with US derivatives market operator CME Group, on 29 August.
The new Puma platform will gradually replace BM&F Bovespa’s four existing trading engines: Global Trading System (GTS), a derivatives and spot FX trading platform; equity and equity derivatives engine Mega Bolsa; and BOVESPA FIX and SISBEX, used for corporate and government fixed income securities respectively.
From Monday, Puma will be used for processing spot FX contracts. The remaining agricultural and financial derivatives currently traded on GTS will be added in three further stages, with the exact dates to be announced in due course.
BM&F Bovespa and CME Group signed a memorandum of understanding in early 2010, which included collaboration in OTC derivatives clearing solutions as well as the development of the new trading platform. As part of the MoU, the Brazilian exchange also increased its stake in the CME Group from 1.8% to 5%, mirroring the investment the CME has in BM&F Bovespa.