FIA today canceled three upcoming conferences due to on-going health concerns and governmental restrictions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. These include the IDX conference scheduled for June 1-3 in London, the Law & Compliance conference scheduled for April 29 - May 1 in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Commodities forum scheduled for June 22 in Houston. In conjunction with the IDX cancellation, FIA announced the postponement of its Futures for Kids Gala, which raises funds for children's charities on the last evening of the IDX event, to later in the year. FIA has made these difficult decisions to protect the health and safety of attendees and members during the ongoing COVID-19 global health emergency.
"It’s with great sadness that FIA must cancel these events, but we must all do our part in containing the spread of the novel coronavirus,” stated FIA President and CEO Walt Lukken. “We look forward to the next time our industry can safely get together as a community.”
Overall, the futures, options and cleared derivatives industry has shown incredible resilience throughout this crisis allowing companies to continue to hedge risk and discover prices. According to recently released FIA data, global futures and options trading volume for the first quarter of 2020 increased to 11.41 billion, an all-time quarterly record and an increase of 43.2% over the first quarter of 2019.
FIA has responded to the coronavirus crisis by being strong advocates against policies to close markets and implement restrictions on their orderly functioning, such as short selling bans. FIA has maintained a dialogue with global regulators to ensure markets remain open and operating smoothly. Additionally, FIA has also advocated for tailored regulatory relief as stay-at-home orders came into place, creating a special section on its website as an information warehouse for regulatory and governmental announcements related to COVID-19 globally.
FIA thanks its members, as well as the sponsors and exhibitors, involved in these events. We also thank the wider listed and cleared derivatives community for their on-going support and engagement with FIA during these challenging times.
