> CAVMONT BANK: BEST RETAIL BANKING SERVICES ZAMBIA 2015
Reaching out to the nation’s unbanked Cavmont Bank of Zambia earlier this year launched two new no-frills savings accounts. The Imiti Ikula Savings Account encourages children to shape their future by regularly putting a few coins and banknotes away, while the Imbasela Account offers the country’s small businesses and sole traders an easily accessible and cost-effective introduction to a wide array of banking services. Though Zambia is one of the most highly urbanised countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that only about 40% of the population enjoys access to financial services. Zambia has room for growth in more ways than one. The country’s economic development is picking up steam with the government determined to encourage and facilitate growth in non-traditional sectors such
as alternative energy. Foreign investors are fêted with tax breaks and a range of other incentives and guarantees. As the nation finds its way to sustained growth, Zambia’s financial sector is set for expansion. Cavmont Bank is ready for that leap. With a network of nineteen branches serving over 50,000 clients, Cavmont bank is determined to offer world class products and services to its growing customer base. The bank’s management places great emphasis on stakeholder engagement, transparency, and corporate governance, believing these core values enable Cavmont Bank to excel across the board: professionalism, service, innovation, and integrity. Cavmont Bank was established in 2004 as the result of a merger between
Cavmont Merchant Bank and New Capital Bank. In 2006, a strategic investment partner was invited aboard to broaden the corporate horizon and raise capital to allow for the bank’s repositioning. The operation was successfully concluded and Cavmont Bank is now fully capitalised and meets or exceeds all capital requirements imposed by the local regulator. The CFI.co judging panel considers Cavmont Bank an example of what corporate craftsmanship may achieve: the brand was carefully rebuilt and now represents that of a true people’s bank where all clients, both retail and business, may expect accessible, reliable, convenient, and affordable services, delivered with unfailing efficiency. The judges are happy to confer the CFI.co 2015 Best Retail Banking Services Award on Cavmont Bank.
> CHICAGO BOARD OPTIONS EXCHANGE (CBOE): BEST VOLATILITY TRADING PLATFORM GLOBAL 2015
The Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) is the largest options exchange in the US and the creator of listed options. CBOE offers options on more than 3,200 corporations, fifteen shares indices – including S&P, Dow Jones, NASDAQ, Russell, MSCI, and FTSE indices – and in excess of 500 ETFs (exchange traded funds). CBOE, established by the Chicago Board of Trade in 1973, obtained a listing on the NASDAQ stock exchange in 2010. Today, CBOE Holdings is the parent company of three exchanges: CBOE; C2, the company’s all-electronic options market; and the CBOE Futures Exchange (CFE). Since 1993, CBOE publishes in real time its now widely-observed CBOE Volatility Index (VIX Index), colloquially known as the “Fear Gauge,” which through a proprietary formula, uses the prices of options on the S&P 500 Index (SPX) to measure expected future volatility. As such, CBOE’s VIX Index constitutes a valuable instrument that allows traders to hedge against the volatility of the market. The creation of the VIX Index, now considered the world’s barometer of equity market volatility, led to the launch of VIX Futures at CFE in 2004 and VIX Options at 98
CBOE in 2006. The VIX Index and VIX Options and Futures are the centrepiece of CBOE Holdings’ expanding volatility franchise, which includes more than three dozen products and is a pipeline for continued innovation. Indeed, the acceptance of the VIX Index as a proxy for global volatility and the phenomenal growth in the trading volumes of VIX Options and Futures has fueled the emergence of volatility as a new asset class. Most recently, CBOE has expanded the trading hours for VIX products – VIX Futures are available nearly 24 hours a day, five days a week, while VIX Options can be traded for thirteen hours each day during the week – allowing investors around the world easier access and more opportunity to trade these key volatility products. Equipped with a premier and exceptionally comprehensive trading platform, CBOE awards traders both large and small a wealth of tools and data streams that allow for decisive action. Though about 95% of all trades take place electronically, the deep liquidity of CBOE’s trading floor enables investors to efficiently facilitate and execute large and complex orders through open outcry. Investors of all levels turn to CBOE CFI.co | Capital Finance International
for the industry’s most comprehensive array of trading tools and options and volatility educational resources. From the worldrenowned Options Institute, which offers classroom and online courses, to dynamic digital, mobile and social platforms, to CBOE’s highly-acclaimed Risk Management Conferences (RMC), the premiere financial industry conferences for institutional users of equity derivatives and volatility products, CBOE is a thought leader and the world’s “go-to” place for all things related to those products. The CFI.co judging panel finds that the Chicago Board Options Exchange continues to set the bar for options and volatility trading through product innovation, trading technology and investor education. CBOE is a trading venue that has taken prescience to the next level by developing and adopting gamechanging methodologies such as the CBOE Volatility Index and making them into publically available tools with which those seeking to underwrite future trends and events can snap into action. As such the CBOE is without equal in the world. The judges have therefore no doubt in granting the Best Volatility Trading Platform Global 2015 Award to the Chicago Board Options Exchange.