Dr. Menzel appointed to Fidectus' Advisory Board

Zürich, March 9th, 2021 – Fidectus AG, a leading cloud service provider in the OTC trading markets, has appointed Dr. Hans-Bernd Menzel to its Advisory Board with immediate effect. Dr. Menzel was the long-term Chief Executive of the European Energy Exchange Group (EEX) and a board member of Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s European subsidiary (CME Europe).

Dr. Menzel brings decades of experience in exchange operations, clearing, and risk management across European and global energy and commodity markets. He was the first CEO of EEX, which under his leadership became the globally leading energy exchange. He was also the founding CEO of European Commodity Clearing AG (ECC), now Europe’s leading energy clearing house, and founding Chairman of EPEX Spot SE, the world’s leading electricity spot exchange. In addition, he served as an Independent Director and Board Member of CME Europe Ltd., the European subsidiary of the globally leading derivatives exchange, Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

In his advisory role, Dr. Menzel will support Fidectus as it continues to digitise and automate post-trade processing for OTC energy and commodity markets, helping market participants reduce operational risk and improve efficiency through interoperable, cloud-based solutions.

Reflecting on the structural differences between exchange-traded and OTC markets, Dr. Menzel commented:

“Whilst exchanges have been using clearing facilities for decades in order to mitigate counterparty default risks for their participants, OTC markets, despite significant steps forward with solutions like bilateral netting agreements, are still largely lagging behind. Fidectus is offering a cloud-based solution to make post-trade processes significantly more efficient and faster. In other words: Fidectus makes post-trade less risky and cheaper.”

Welcoming the appointment, Dr. Jens Bartenschlager, CEO and co-founder of Fidectus, added:

“Dr. Hans-Bernd Menzel’s outstanding experience in managing processes and risks from exchange and over-the-counter financial and commodity transactions will help make Fidectus’ innovative services available to a wide range of professional market participants.”

Dr. Menzel’s appointment further strengthens Fidectus’ strategic focus on building a trusted, standards-based post-trade infrastructure for the global energy trading community.