Rudolf Ferscha, chief executive of Eurex, the Swiss-German derivatives exchange, has said he is confident of his exchange's US application will be approved following a US Congressional hearing, despite virulent opposition from potential competitors.

Ferscha said: "It is very important to us that Congress has expressed confidence in the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) being the appropriate organisation to approve us, and are very confident of a timely approval of our application. Our target start date for the new exchange is still set for early February."