CME appoints Paul Houston Global Head of FX Products amid wider FX business integration

August 16, 2023 - CME Group has announced a realignment of its FX futures, options, cash and over-the-counter (OTC) FX businesses into a single unit led by Paul Houston, who has overseen CME Group's futures and options business for seven years. 

Under the new structure, Paul Houston will serve as Global Head of FX Products and will be responsible for the company's FX derivatives markets as well as its EBS cash markets business, leveraging a combined team to further improve client service, increase efficiencies and enhance product development across the entire FX marketplace. Jeff Ward, Global Head of EBS, will be leaving CME Group in September. 

"With the adoption of a more integrated FX business model that can better operate across futures, options, cash and OTC markets, we will significantly expand trading opportunities for our clients, while also delivering increased efficiencies and an enhanced ability to introduce new products in the dynamic FX marketplace," said Tim McCourt, Senior Managing Director, Head of Financial & OTC Products, CME Group. "We have been working to create tighter alignment among all of our FX businesses since CME Group purchased EBS through its acquisition of NEX in 2018. This new structure is the last step in that process and one that, we believe, will benefit our FX clients globally."

McCourt added, "Paul is a proven leader who has played a key role in expanding our FX futures and options business, which saw average daily volume increase by 24% to 985,000 contracts last year. His experience and comprehensive knowledge of the broad FX market will benefit our entire FX business and create enhanced development opportunities for the combined team. In addition, we thank Jeff Ward for all he has done to make EBS an award-winning, go-to source for liquidity and price discovery in cash FX and look forward to continuing to build on that strong track record going forward." 

Prior to joining CME Group in April 2016, Houston was EMEA Head of FX Prime Brokerage at Deutsche Bank in London. 

CME Group acquired NEX Group (previously ICAP), and ts subsidiary brands BrokerTec, EBS, Traiana, and TriOptima, in November 2018.