South Africa’s Johannesburg stock exchange plans to start offering CFDs on its platform early in 2013. The JSE released the announcement this morning citing increased awareness and demand for the leveraged retail product. It plans to start offering CFDs as an exchange-traded product with trades being reported to the JSE to streamline risk management systems.
“This initiative forms part of the JSE’s focus to be more responsive to the needs of the market rather than develop products simply because they seem like a good idea.”
A spokesman for the Johannesburg stock exchange noted that it regards CFDs as a compliment to single stock futures and that both financial products can exist side by side. In a similar way to an over-the-counter CFD, the JSE eCFD will carry an overnight holding charge and in this respect the exchange proposed that it will be using the South Africa’s Benchmark Overnight Rate, published daily by the SA Reserve Bank.
