Nasdaq NLX - the exchange group's London futures market - is set to close on 28 April this year, following a board meeting in January.
Board members decided to close the platform and market participants will be contacted with more information in the next few days.
“NLX will commence the process of winding down operations with the best interests of the market and the participants in mind and will keep the market updated on a regular basis,” Nasdaq said.
The exchange declined to comment further when contacted by The TRADE, but its earnings report explained: “Nasdaq has made the decision to end its NLX interest rate futures business.
“Nasdaq will be working with customers to manage the wind down of open positions in an orderly manner.”
Chief executive officer at AQUIS Exchange, Alasdair Haynes, told The TRADE the news was “nothing extraordinary.”
“It’s extremely hard to establish these businesses. In this case Nasdaq has had a very tough road, relying on new clearing type model and particularly with the launch of CurveGlobal and the LSE and Deutsche Boerse merger, it has made the model extremely difficult.”
Nasdaq NLX was launched in 2013 and offers short and long-term interest rates on euro- and sterling-denominated listed derivatives.
It was established to rival ICE’s Liffe and Deutsche Boerse’s Eurex platforms, which dominate the market.
However, the launch was not as successful as expected with interest rates at an all time low across Europe.
It launched a market-making incentive programme, in which members were not charged any fees to trade and received a full rebate on all other fees.
After achieving a 10% market share in euro-denominated futures trading in 2014, volumes began to decline and over the years, failed to recover.
In March 2015, it joined a new portfolio margining service launched by LCH in a bid to revive interest in the exchange, however it failed to boost trading.
Speaking at the time, Victoria Kent, NLX’s head of business development, said: “We hope to see volumes increase at NLX.
“The conversations we’ve had to date with potential bank clients has been based on the theoretical portfolio margining exercise, but now it is up and live we can prove those savings.”
It then lost its long-time serving CEO Charlotte Crosswell, as well as many of its senior leadership team including David Helps, Toby Bryans and Stuart Deel-Smith.