Eurex has introduced Equity and Basket Total Return Futures (ETRFs/BTRFs) on US stocks, expanding a derivatives suite used for equity synthetic financing that has seen strong adoption in recent years.
A total of 73 ETRFs based on constituents of the STOXX® USA 500 and denominated in USD were launched on February 23. For each contract, STOXX provides an Equity Dividend Index (EDI) that reflects the total net-of-tax dividend per share paid by the underlying equity from a base date[1] and is used in the ETRF’s final settlement price.
An ETRF offers a collateral-efficient, fully fungible and listed, synthetic replication to a bespoke over-the-counter (OTC) swap used in equity financing. In the agreement, an ETRF holder receives the price performance of the underlying index or security plus the net-of-withholding-tax dividends from a seller, in exchange for a fee.
Total-return products, such as TRFs, have less pricing sensitivity to expected dividends than price-return futures, and therefore have attracted traders in times of rising volatility and uncertainty over company payments. TRFs have also been widely used to hedge the implied equity repo rate. As exchange-listed instruments, ETRFs mitigate counterparty risk and provide operational and cost advantages relative to OTC derivatives at a time of heightened regulation such as the Uncleared Margin Rules (UMR). ETRFs also support collateral optimization through the substitution of pledged securities with comparable equities.
“Demand for market-based financing and futurized alternatives is accelerating across Europe, and Eurex has played a pivotal role in developing centrally cleared solutions such as TRFs,” said Stuart Heath, Product R&D for Equity and Index at Eurex. “We are excited to bring the TRFs’ margin, capital and operational efficiencies to the popular segment of US stocks.”
Equity TRF make-up
An ETRF is based on three underlying components:
- The equity share price
- An index representing the distributions of the underlying company
- A short-term interest rate
ETRFs are the building blocks of bespoke BTRFs constructed by traders within certain parameters in relation to the eligible underlying shares. BTRFs allow substitutions and are executed as a package in Eurex’s T7 trading system.
“Equity Dividend Indices facilitate the accurate measurement of the dividend leg in a TRF, with the transparency that comes with using an independent index provider,” said Thomas Shuttlewood, Head of Strategy and Digital Asset Indices, Index Research and Development, at STOXX. “Through the provision of a rules-based Equity Dividend Index, STOXX supports the growth of this innovative segment and accompanies those clients benefitting from it.”
Table 1: Key benefits of listed TRFs
ETRF/BTRF development since launch
In 2019, Eurex was the first exchange in the world to launch ETRFs and BTRFs denominated in EUR as a listed alternative to OTC basket swaps for equity financing. The segment was subsequently expanded to included GBP, CHF and USD. Over 450 European single-stock ETRFs can be traded currently at the Frankfurt-based exchange, either as single contracts or as part of BTRFs.
Since launch, over EUR 117 billion in notional value was traded in the ETRF product suite at Eurex. Trading volume rose nearly 100% in 2025 to EUR 46.6 billion from the previous year.
Open interest in the products reached a record at the end of January 2026, with over EUR 5 billion notional (Figure 1).
Figure 1: ETRF/BTRF trading volumes (in M EUR)
Ten-year collaboration
Eurex and STOXX kicked off their TRF collaboration in 2016 with the launch of EURO STOXX® 50 index TRFs, which have seen strong demand (Figure 2). TRFs on the STOXX® Europe 600 index were introduced in 2024. Eurex also offers similar contracts on the EURO STOXX® Banks and EURO STOXX® Select Dividend 30 indices, as well as on iSTOXX collateral indices.
Figure 2: EURO STOXX 50 index TRFs traded volume
Leading partnership in exchange-traded derivatives
TRFs are growing in volume as they allow traders and fund managers to hedge risk, improve capital margin obligations, and manage portfolios and balance sheets more efficiently. The latest launch further cements STOXX’s and Eurex’s collaboration and leadership in this segment.
| Read more: Q&A with Eurex: Switching OTC swaps to a capital-efficient alternative under Uncleared Margin Rules |
For more details on the ETRF/BTRF offering, please visit: Trade Equity & Basket TRFs at Eurex | Improved Capital Efficiency.
For additional information on Index TRFs, please visit Index Total Return Futures | Eurex Listed Total Return Swaps.